DALLAS, Pa. – The No. 7 Messiah Men's Volleyball team was in action Saturday on Day Two of the Cougar Kickoff Classic hosted by Misericordia University. The Falcons opened Day Two with a 3-1 win over Thiel College. Messiah won the first set before dropping the second and won two straight to earn the match win. Alex Kagoro led the Falcons with 19 kills and three service aces while Tyler McConnell added 12 kills and two service aces. Tyler Good tallied 10 digs. In the second match, the Falcons swept Elmira 3-0 to finish the weekend 3-0. Jake Eby led the Falcons with seven kills, hitting .636, while Sean Gillespie added six. Tyler Good led the Messiah defense with six digs with Aidan Dunwoody adding five. Alex Kagoro was named Tournament MVP. Brandon Sharp and Jake Eby joined Kagoro on the All-Tournament Team.

Messiah returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 31, when they travel to Kean University in Union, N.J. to take on Kean University at 12:00 p.m. and Lasell University at 4:00 p.m.

Match One: Messiah vs Thiel

Set One
The Falcons and Tomcats battled from the start of set one. Messiah took a 5-4 lead behind kills from Alex Kagoro and Todd Snyder and a service ace from Tyler McConnell. A service ace for Snyder and kill for Kagoro from Brandon Sharp gave the Falcons the 8-6 lead. After a kill from the Tomcats, the Falcons scored three straight with a pair of Thiel errors and a kill for Jake Eby. Back-to-back kills for Thiel were followed by a pair of attack errors to give Messiah the 13-9 lead. The Tomcats earned three back before Sharp connected with Snyder for a kill and Kagoro notched the Falcons' third service ace of the match to take a 15-12 lead. Thiel tied it at 15-15 before an error and kill for Sharp from Tyler Good returned the two-point lead. Thiel continued to level the score until kills from Eby and McConnell gave Messiah a 21-19 lead. With a pair of service errors for the Tomcats and a kill for Alex Kagoro, the Falcons led 24-22. A kill for Tyler McConnell from Brandon Sharp claimed the 25-23 set one win.

Set Two
Thiel took a quick 3-0 lead before a kill for Alex Kagoro from Brandon Sharp followed by a pair of Tomcats' errors notched the score 3-3. Jake Eby and Tyler McConnell each tallied a kill as Thiel held a slight 8-7 advantage. The teams traded errors before a kill for Sharp from Tyler Good and a service ace from McConnell brought the score to 12-11 in favor of the Tomcats. The Falcons strung three together with kills from Kagoro and Sharp to take their first lead at 15-14. A kill for Tyler Good brought the score to 16-15 before the Tomcats scored three straight and regained the lead at 18-16. The teams traded the next five points, with Brandon Sharp tallying a kill for the Falcons, before a pair of kills for Thiel extended their lead to 22-19 before the Falcons called a timeout. Thiel earned the next three points and claimed the second set 25-19 to notch the match score at 1-1.

Set Three
The teams started set three fairly even with Tyler McConnell notching the first point for the Falcons with a kill. After a pair of kills for the Tomcats, Brandon Sharp found Jake Eby to notch it 2-2. Thiel took a 6-5 lead after a pair of kills before Messiah scored three straight with a pair of Thiel errors and a kill from Alex Kagoro to take the 8-6 lead. A pair of kills for McConnell from Sharp and Eby extended the lead to 10-7. The teams traded kills with Eby and Kagoro each tallying one before Messiah took a 14-10 lead on a block from Kagoro and Todd Snyder. The points continued splitting as Snyder notched a kill and Sharp and Snyder combined for a block. Akill from Jake Eby to make it 18-14 forced a Thiel timeout. Thiel scored a pair out of the timeout before earning a service error. A kill for Alex Kagoro followed by an error for the Tomcats brought the score to 21-16 in favor of Messiah, forcing the second Thiel timeout. The timeout did not prove as effective as the first, as Messiah tallied the next three points on kills from Eby and Kagoro and an error for the Tomcats. An error for each team ended the set 25-17 in favor of Messiah, giving the Falcons a 2-1 match advantage.

Set Four
The Falcons and Tomcats traded kills to open the fourth set with Tyler Good and Brandon Sharp both connecting with Tyler McConnell for the Falcons' kills. A kill from Jake Eby notched the score 3-3 before Thiel took a 7-4 lead. Alex Kagoro tallied a kill before a pair of Thiel kills extended their lead to 9-5. A service error for the Tomcats and a pair of service aces for Todd Snyder cut the deficit to one before a pair of Tomcats' blocks gave thiel an 11-8 lead. Messiah scored five straight with a pair of errors from Thiel followed by a kill from McConnell and a pair from Kagoro to give Messiah the 13-11 lead and forcing a Thiel timeout. Out of the timeout, the team exchanged kills before Sharp found Kagoro on back-to-back attempts to extend the Falcons' lead to 16-13. Kagoro and Snyder each tallied kills as Messiah jumped to a 19-15 lead and Thiel took their second timeout. Out of the second timeout, Tyler McConnell notched a kill before Alex Kagoro again tallied a pair for the 22-15 lead. The Falcons and Bobcats traded killswil McConnell and Kagoro each tallying one before a service error from Thiel gave Messiah the 25-18 set win and the 3-1 match victory.

Stats
Alex Kagoro led the Falcons with 19 kills, hitting .455 with three service aces while Tyler McConnell added 12 kills and a pair of service aces. Jake Eby added nine kills and Brandon Sharp dished out 37 assists. Tyler Good tallied 10 digs on defense.

Match Two: Messiah vs Elmira

Set One
Brandon Sharp found Alex Kagoro for a kill to open match two before Elmira scored a pair. The Falcons then tallied five straight that included kills by Tyler McConnell and Jake Eby and a service ace for McConnell to take a 6-2 lead. Kills from Eby and Snyder followed by a block from Snyder and Sharp extended the lead to 10-4. Snyder set Tyler Good for a kill before four straight points for the Falcons brought the lead to 15-6. After a pair of kills from Elmira, an error and then a service ace for Sharp extended the score to 17-8. Eby and Good tallied kills as the lead grew to 20-11 in favor of the Falcons. A pair of errors from the Eagles gave Messiah a 22-13 lead. Elmira scored a pair before a service error was followed by a solo block from Jake Eby gave Messiah the 25-16 set one win.

Set Two
Following an error from the Eagles, they scored three straight to take a 3-1 lead. The Falcons were quick to earn the three back with a kill for Jake Eby from Brandon Sharp and a pair of Eagles' errors to take a 4-3 lead. The teams exchanged three straight again, with the Falcons taking a 7-6 lead that included a block by Todd Snyder and Everett Macurda. The teams traded points before a kill from Tyler Good was followed by a pair of kills for Sean Gillespie to take an 11-8 lead. The Falcons took a 14-11 lead after a pair of service errors for Elmira and a kill for Macurda. The teams continued trading points until a kill from Todd Snyder secured a 20-16 lead. After a kill for Elmira, the Falcons claimed five-straight points to earn the 25-17 win with a kill from Todd Snyder and a block from Jake Eby followed by three errors from the Eagles.

Set Three
The Falcons started set three with a kill for Brandon Sharp from Tyler Good and an attack error for Elmira for a 2-0 lead. Jake Eby and Everett Macurda each tallied a kill as the lead extended to 4-2. Good and Sean Gillespie each tallied a kill before Gillespie and Eby notched back-to-back kills, extending the lead to 9-6. After a kill for the Eagles, Messiah scored three straight with a block from Eby and Macurda and a kill from Macurda for the 12-7 lead. A kill from Good gave Messiah a 15-9 lead before Elmira cut the deficit to three. The Falcons held an 18-16 lead after kills from Gillespie and Eby. Elmira tied it 19-19 on a service ace before a sanction point was awarded to the Falcons and an error from Elmira gave the Falcons a 21-19 lead. A pair of kills for the Eagles was tied at 21-21. Todd Snyder and Everett Macurda combined for a block before an Eagles kill. The Falcons scored three straight with a kill from Snyder, and Eagles' error, and a service ace from Tyler Good sealed the set 25-22 and gave Messiah the 3-0 match sweep.

Stats
Jake Eby led the Falcons with seven kills, hitting .636, while Sean Gillespie added six. Tyler Good led the Messiah defense with six digs with Aidan Dunwoody adding five. The Falcons hit .417 in the match to Elmira's .152.

Up Next
Messiah returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 31, when they travel to Kean University in Union, N.J. to take on Kean University at 12:00 p.m. and Lasell University at 4:00 p.m.