WILKES-BARRE, PA – Six school records were broken for the Wilkes University men's volleyball team during Saturday afternoon's Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) tri-match at King's College also with Hood College as the Colonels split the two matchups. Wilkes lost a close five-set thriller to King's (25-23, 25-23, 12-25, 20-25, 11-15) before defeating Hood 3-0 (25-4, 25-20, 25-10).

During the match against King's junior Noah Taylor (Lumberton, NJ/Rancocas Valley Regional) set the single-match school record for kills with 24 and points with 26. Senior Zach Shay (Bethlehem, PA/Freedom) set the single-match school record for assists with 52 and broke the career school record for assists during the match as well as he now has 1,631 at the end of the day. Junior Paul Binner (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock) also broke the school record for career points during the match with the Monarchs and has 574.5 career points at the end of the day. Against Hood it was Binner who also set the single-match record with nine service aces.

Wilkes is now 16-10 overall and 2-6 in the MAC following the matches. King's improved to 18-5 overall and 2-3 in the MAC with its win over Wilkes. Hood dropped to 2-16 overall and 0-5 in the MAC following the loss to the Colonels.

The Colonels opened the match with King's with a 25-23 victory in the first set. A key four-point run made the score 10-6 as Lucas Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central) and Taylor had kills and Jackson Shafer (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) added an ace during the run. Wilkes was able to keep its lead comfortable until the Monarchs used a six-point run to tie the score at 23-23. A Kill by Binner from Shay and a block by Binner and Shafer earned Wilkes the first set win 25-23.

In the second set the Colonels used two kills by Taylor and a block by L. Mages and Binner to go ahead 11-8 with a 3-0 run. King's battled back and the score stood 22-22 before the Colonels scored three of the last four points on two kills by Shafer and a block by Jacob Mages (Buffalo, NY/Iroquois Central) and L. Mages as Wilkes went ahead 2-0 in the match.

King's used a seven-point run in the third set to open a 16-5 lead on way to a 25-12 win to stay alive in the match. The Monarchs then won the fourth set 25-20 as the home team was able to score five of the last six points to push the match to a fifth set. Wilkes led 8-7 on the switch but King's finished on an 8-3 run including the final three points to win 15-11 in the fifth and take the match 3-2.

Taylor led the way with 24 kills while also recording a team-high 13 digs. Shafer had 14 kills and added 12 digs. Shay had 52 assists and 10 digs as the trio all recorded double-doubles. Binner had seven kills and four blocks while J. Mages tied for team lead with four blocks. Sam Winter (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central) added 11 digs.

King's was led by Jared Pointkowski's 21 kills and 15 digs. Aziz Atiyeh added 14 digs while Sam Capwell had seven blocks. George Beck and Ben Maskiell each had 26 assists.

In the first set against Hood, the Colonels went on a 17-0 run with Binner and Matthew Molnar (South Abington Township, PA/Abington Heights) serving to open up a 22-2 lead before winning 25-4 in the dominant set. Binner had five aces during the run.

The second set was much closer as the Blazers led 20-19 before the Colonels closed on a six-point run to win 25-20. Taylor had a kill and ace during the run while Binner added a kill and block along with Shay.

Wilkes cruised to a 25-10 win in the third set to complete the sweep as Binner added four consecutive service aces at one point in the set.

Binner totaled 20.5 points with the school record nine aces, eight kills, two solo blocks, and three block assists. Shafer led Wilkes with 11 kills while Shay led with 22 assists and added four blocks. Winter led the Colonels with five digs.

Hood was led by seven kills by Marc Fitzkee.

Next up for the Colonels is their final non-conference match of the season on Thursday, March 30 at Drew University. The Colonels beat the Rangers 3-0 at home on February 23rd.