Lions Fall to No. 8 SJFU in Juniata Invite
HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona men's volleyball team competed in the Juniata College Invitational on Saturday, when the Lions suffered a 3-0 loss to No. 8 Saint John Fisher University in the Memorial Gymnasium.
St. John Fisher (9-3) handled the Lions (0-7) in straight sets, winning by scores of 25-14, 25-10, and 25-20.
Willem Del Priore (Seven Valleys, PA/Dallastown) led Penn State Altoona with nine points on seven kills, one service ace, and one solo block while chipping in three digs. Connor Ebersole (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) had 6.5 points on five kills, one solo block, and one block assist, and Jared Kish (Columbus, OH/Hilliard Darby) recorded five points on five kills.
Xavier Vang (Rogers, MN/Rogers) totaled 17 assists to go along with five digs and one block assist.
Jeremy Winter (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) tallied a team-best eight digs.
St. John Fisher started the first set with leads of 4-0 and 6-1. Penn State Altoona closed the gap to 6-4 on an Ebersole kill, then stayed within two on Kish's kill that made it 7-5. A pair of service errors by the Cardinals helped to keep the difference at two points, 9-7, but St. John Fisher scored the next four points in a row to expand its lead to six, 13-7. A 5-1 run by Penn State Altoona cut the Cardinals' lead to 14-12, as the Lions used two kills from Del Priore, a kill and a block from Ebersole, and a St. John Fisher setting error to account for their five points during that stretch. But the Cardinals responded with a 6-0 run, part of a sequence that saw St. John Fisher outscore Penn State Altoona 11-2 over the rest of the set to prevail by 11 points.
The Cardinals started the second set in similar fashion to the first, working their way out to a 7-2 lead. The Lions followed that with an Ebersole kill, then got a point from a St. John Fisher attack error to make it 7-4. But, with the score 10-6, the Cardinals broke things open with an 11-0 run, en route to a 15-point victory in the second set.
Penn State Altoona started the third set by building a 5-3 lead, during which the Lions capitalized on St. John Fisher errors. But the Cardinals used another big run to take a significant lead, outscoring the Lions 11-2 over the next 13 points to establish a seven-point advantage. With St. John Fisher at match point late in the set, a kill from Kish and a Cardinals attack error kept the Lions alive and brought Penn State Altoona to within four, 24-20. But a St. John Fisher kill on the next play sealed the match for the Cardinals.
Penn State Altoona men's volleyball returns to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference play for its next match, when the Lions come home to face Hiram College on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m.
