Wilkes Men's Volleyball Drops Two Matches on Saturday
WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Wilkes University men's volleyball team fell to #6 Stevenson in three sets (17-25, 16-25, 13-25) before being swept by Penn State Behrend 14-25, 17-25 and 13-25 at their tri-match on Saturday afternoon at the Marts Center.
The loss drop Wilkes to 9-13 overall and 3-7 in the MAC.
In the Middle Atlantic Conference match against Stevenson, the Mustangs jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in the first set and after a kill by Kyle Price (Mountaintop, PA/Crestwood) pushed it to 11-4 with a run of three straight points. After the teams traded points for a stretch, JD Kirby (Eastport, NY/Eastport-South Manor) set up Ethan Speicher (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) for a kill to make it 15-9 Mustangs which was followed by a Stevenson error to cut the deficit to five. The visitors would respond with a pair of kills to regain a seven-point lead but a string of errors only had Wilkes trailing by five at 19-14. Stevenson settled down and rattled off four consecutive points, thanks in part to a pair of service aces, to take control of the set at 23-14 on their way to a 25-17 first set victory.
An attack error by Stevenson pulled Wilkes to within one at 6-5 early in the second set but the Mustangs responded by going on a 6-0 run to open up a 12-5 advantage. The Mustangs extended the lead to eight at 18-10 but a Jones Mensah (Philadelphia, PA/Central) kill paired with a couple more Stevenson errors cut the deficit to five at 18-13. The visitors countered by taking seven of the final 10 points to win the second set 25-16.
The third set was close in the early going as the Mustangs held a 5-4 lead but they opened up some breathing room on the Colonels due to a 10-2 run that put the score at 15-6. The teams traded points in the middle of the set which allowed Stevenson to maintain their nine-point advantage at 21-12. The Mustangs capped off the set with a pair of kills and a service ace to win the third set 25-13 and take the match 3-0.
Mensah paced the Colonels with eight kills while Cole Hefner (East Greenville, PA/Southern Lehigh) led the defense with four blocks.
In their second match of the day, the Colonels took an early 5-4 lead in the first set before the Lions responded by going on a 12-3 run to double up Wilkes 16-8. Kirby found Brian Vu (Wantagh, NY/MacArthur) for a kill to make it 17-9 but Penn St Behrend countered with three consecutive points to push the lead to double-digits at 20-9. A Speicher kill cut the margin to nine but the Lions won three of the last four point to take the opening set 25-14.
In the second set, Penn State Behrend jumped out to an early 6-3 advantage with Wilkes knotting it back up at 6-6 thanks to three Lions errors. The visitors rebounded by stringing together eight straight points to take back the lead at 14-6. A pair of errors and an out of rotation penalty by the Lions brought the Colonels to within six at 20-14 but Penn State steadied itself with a pair of kills on its way to winning the second set 25-17.
The Lions took that momentum into the third set as they leaped out to a 9-2 lead. A Speicher kill stopped the run but Penn State Behrend rattled off six out of eight points to maintain control at 15-6. Kirby recorded a service ace to cut it to 15-8 but the Lions responded again, this time with five points in a row, to put the Colonels backs against the wall at 20-8. Wilkes would go down swinging as they cut the deficit to 10 at 23-13 but back-to-back errors by the navy and gold gave Penn State Behrend the 25-13 third set victory and a 3-0 win.
Mensah again led the navy and gold with seven kills while Vu added six kills to go along with four digs.
Wilkes returns to the court on Wednesday, March 27th when it welcomes #14 Arcadia to the Marts Center for a 7:00 p.m. match.
