GRANTHAM, PA – The Wilkes University men's volleyball team dropped a three-set match in Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) play Friday night at Messiah College. Set scores were 25-17, 25-17, 25-19.

With the defeat Wilkes dropped to 8-9 overall and 3-5 in the MAC. Messiah improved to 12-7 overall and 6-2 in league games.

The Colonels grabbed their largest lead of match at 7-4 of the first set following a kill by Cole Hefner (East Greenville, PA/Southern Lehigh) and an attack error by the Falcons. After Messiah went on an 8-1 run to take a 12-8 lead, Wilkes began to chip away. Eventually Wilkes pulled within one point at 14-13 following two Mark Piotrowski (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) kills. The home side pulled away scoring 11 of the final 15 points to take a 1-0 advantage in the match with a 25-17 victory.

Daniel Sales (Laflin, PA/James M. Coughlin) and Hefner combined for a block that gave the Colonels a 10-8 lead in set two. A Piotrowski kill kept Wilkes ahead 11-10 and then a Hefner kill did the same at 13-12. After Messiah took a 14-13 lead, Andrew Potter (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) tied the score with a kill. The Falcons would then score the next seven points on its way to another 25-17 set win.

Messiah got off to a quick start in the third set with an 11-5 lead before Sales connected on consecutive kills and the Falcons made an attack error to pull the Colonels within three points. Wilkes would score four straight points on an Ethan Speicher (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) kill, a Potter kill, a Falcons error and a block by Speicher and Potter to make the score 15-12 and shrink the deficit to three again. Wilkes was unable to get the lead below three the rest of the way though as Messiah completed the sweep with a 25-19 victory.

Piotrowski led the Colonels with nine kills. Jones Mensah (Philadelphia, PA/Central) added seven. Sales led Wilkes with 28 assists and match-highs with nine digs and two service aces.

Matt Knab had a match-high 11 kills for Messiah while Marshall Nixon had a match-high seven blocks.

The Colonels are right back on the court tomorrow (Saturday) when they will host a non-conference tri-match at the Marts Center. Wilkes will face St. Joseph's College – Brooklyn at 11:00 a.m. and then finish the day against Medaille College at approximately 3:00 p.m.