Wilkes Men's Volleyball Splits a Pair of MAC Matches on Saturday
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's volleyball team went 1-1 on Saturday, falling to Messiah College 3-1 before beating Alvernia University by an identical score. The win improves the Colonels to 6-7 overall and 2-3 in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC).
Wilkes jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the first set against Messiah and held a three-point advantage at 10-7 after a service ace by Daniel Sales (Laflin, PA/James M. Coughlin). With the score 14-12, the Colonels went on a 5-0 run to stretch their lead to seven at 19-12. Messiah cut the deficit to five at 21-16 but Wilkes scored four of the next five points to take the opening set 25-17.
Neither team could get much separation in the second set as the score stood knotted at 15-15 with the biggest lead of the set being just two points. The Falcons started to pull away thanks to a 7-2 run to take control of the second set at 22-17. A pair of errors by Messiah helped Wilkes cut the deficit to three at 23-20 before the Falcons capped off the set with a service ace (25-20) and tied the match at one set apiece.
A Cole Hefner (East Greenville, PA/Southern Lehigh) kill gave the Colonels a 9-6 lead early in the third set. The Falcons answered back with four kills of their own to take five of the next six points and regain the lead at 11-10. Both teams then traded points back and forth as the score was tied up at 20-20 with the end of the set drawing near. Messiah took a slight advantage at 22-20 to force a Wilkes timeout. The Falcons added another kill and took advantage of two Colonel attack errors to win the third set 25-20 and hold their first lead of the match at two sets to one.
The fourth set was another closely contested one as an Andrew Potter (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) kill pulled Wilkes to within one at 11-10 before a Messiah kill pushed the margin to three at 16-13. After a kill by Sales, the Falcons captured the next four points to open up some breathing room at 20-14. Messiah would suffer a minor setback with an attack error but recovered by taking five of the next six points to close the set on an 11-2 run (25-16) and win the match three sets to one.
Mark Piotrowski (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) led the navy and gold with 10 kills while Sales had 36 assists and seven digs.
Wilkes held an early 4-3 advantage in the first set against Alvernia before the Golden Wolves went on a 12-3 run to take a 15-7 lead. A Piotrowski kill ended the run and the Colonels took the next two points to cut the deficit to 15-10. An Alvernia service error made it 17-12 but the Golden Wolves kept the pressure on as a kill and a service ace, paired with some Colonel errors, pushed the lead to 10 at 22-12. Alvernia closed out the first set with a kill to take it 25-15.
The Colonels again jumped out to an early lead in the second set, holding an 11-6 advantage after another kill by Piotrowski. The Golden Wolves would answer out of a timeout by going on an 8-3 run to tie the score up at 14-14. This time Wilkes responded by taking five of the next six points, capped off by an Ethan Speicher (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) kill, to regain a four-point lead at 19-15 and forcing Alvernia to take another timeout. The Colonels answered the bell after this timeout as the teams traded points down the stretch before a Hefner service ace gave the navy and gold a 25-19 set victory to knot the match up at 1-1.
Wilkes continued to get off to good starts as Sales set up Piotrowski for a kill that gave the Colonels a 12-6 lead in the third set. Speicher recorded back-to-back kills to maintain a comfortable advantage for Wilkes at 19-12. Alvernia responded with three straight points, punctuated by a service ace, to cut the deficit to four at 19-15 and force a Colonel timeout. Wilkes then traded a couple points with Alvernia before Jones Mensah (Philadelphia, PA/Central) and Potter finished the set with kills to give the Colonels another 25-19 set victory and 2-1 match lead.
The fourth set was a tight one as the teams went back and forth in the beginning to play to a 10-10 tie in the early going. An Alvernia kill knotted the score back up at 15-15 before three straight points gave the Golden Wolves a slight 20-18 lead. Wilkes responded by pulling to within one at 22-21 before a costly out of rotation penalty for Alvernia tied the score at 22-22. The Golden Wolves remained unfazed as a service ace pushed them to set point at 24-22. This time Wilkes would score three straight points to get to match point at 25-24. An Alvernia kill staved off defeat but an attack error put them back in danger as Wilkes had another chance to put this one away at 26-25. The Golden Wolves recovered with a kill and a Colonels error put the pressure back on the navy and gold as Alvernia looked to close out the set up 27-26. Wilkes would not let this one slip away though as they finished it off with a pair of Piotrowski kills and a match winner from Mensah to take the fourth set 29-27 and the match 3-1.
Piotrowski, a freshman, set a season-high with 20 kills while Sales broke his career-high of 37 assists with 44 to propel the Colonels to victory. Potter also recorded a career-high of 11 kills in the match.
Wilkes returns to the floor on Tuesday, February 26th when it heads to York College (N.Y.) for a 7:00 p.m. match.
