The Medaille College Men's Volleyball Team won a hard-fought match over visiting Penn State-Behrend in four sets Wednesday night at the Sullivan Center. Set scores were (29-27, 25-19, 23-25, and 25-14).
The Mavs jumped out to an early 18-9 lead in set one, led by four kills from senior David Hill and three from junior Nate Schneider. The lead seemed to put Medaille in control of the set, but Penn State-Behrend kept chipping away and finally tied the score at 23-23. The next eight points were an exchange of kills and attack errors by both teams, with neither being able to put the set away. The Mavericks finally strung together back-to-back kills by Hill and senior David Riggsby to earn the two-point win. Hill finished with seven kills in the set.
The second set got off to a slow start with seven of the first 11 points resulting from service errors. The Mavs were finally able to get some momentum going, led again by Hill who had five kills in the set. Medaille held a comfortable advantage for the majority of the set to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Mavs kept the momentum going early in the third set, getting out to a 7-3 lead. The Lions, however, would not go away quietly. They strung together a four-point run to tie the score at 7-7, one of 16 times the score would be tied in the set. The Mavs battled back from a late three-point deficit to tie the score for the final time, 23-23, on a kill by junior Jack Hagerty, but a Penn State-Behrend kill and a Medaille attack error gave the Lions a 25-23 win, forcing a fourth set.
After a Penn State-Behrend kill to start the final set, Medaille embarked on a 6-0 run led by two kills by Hagerty. The Mavs dominated play en route to an easy 25-14 win to end the match.
Hill and Hagerty each finished with a match-high 14 kills. Hagerty also had six blocks and three service aces. Riggsby had a strong all-around match with 43 assists, six kills, six service aces, and three blocks. Schneider finished with nine kills.
The Lions were led by sophomore Mitch Farabaugh who posted 28 assists and senior Derek Polishen with 11 digs.
The win sees Medaille (14-12, 6-1) AMCC take over first place of the AMCC, Penn St.-Behrend (11-12, 6-2 AMCC) falls to second place with the loss.