Loretto, Pa. – Saint Francis University recuperated from two tough non-conference losses in Wednesday's twilight showdown by clipping the Juniata Eagles, 3-1 (23-30, 30-26, 30-24, 30-28), as the Red Flash played in their third Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tait Division match of the season.
“We got off to a bit of a slow start, but we turned it around in a hurry,” Saint Francis' head coach, Mike Rumbaugh, had to offer. “This is a huge win for us this season. It brings us back to .500 and moves us to 2-1 in the conference. I'm especially pleased with how we played as a team tonight. In the end, I believe that was the deciding factor.”
Sophomore swinger Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) triumphed in SFU's 12th tilt of the season by leading all participants with 18 kills on 39 attempts, giving way to an exceedingly precise attacking rate of .359. Rivett also tallied four digs, one ace, one solo block and a single blocking assist. Speaking of accuracy, sophomore middle hitter Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) racked up nine kills on 14 swings with only two errors for a .500 percentage. Freyer added an ace, three digs and three blocking assists. Sophomore outside hitter Jordan Varee (Meadville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) chipped in for a big night with 15 kills, four digs and three blocking helpers. Sophomore outside hitter Dave Reilly (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) played a big role in SFU's victory with 12 kills, three successful serves, four digs and one blocking assist. Sophomore middle hitter Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) came away with five kills on 10 kills and just one error for an offensive rate of .400. McManamon affixed two aces, four digs and a big night of blocking defense with two solos and three assists.
Junior setter Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) performed exactly what his position implies and tallied 54 sets while sophomore libero Markus Schulze (Berlin, Germany/Anne-Frank) excavated 20 digs.
Rivett tallied the first point of the game after Juniata put forth two errors to SFU's one to set the score at 3-1 in favor of the Flash. SFU scored on another Eagles error and a Freyer kill before Juniata netted a point of their own. Varee plastered one through the Eagles middle defense, but a blocking error on Reilly set the score at 6-6. Rivett ruptured the tie and Conley lit the board for the first ace of the game, but Juniata College countered for the next two points to redraw the game at 8-8. McManamon and Rivett stuffed Juniata's kill in addition to a prior error to go up two, but Reilly thrashed his next attempt into the netting. Varee bounced one off an Eagles' fingertip, but Juniata retaliated with their eleventh score. Varee tossed another point into his stats column before serving long on his first of the game. Juniata attained the lead on a dunk and their first ace from the palm Dan Powers. Powers missed on his next serve, but Zach Bock swatted the pill where the Flash weren't present for a two-point lead. SFU committed an error, but Rivett kept it within two after a blocking error form Juniata's end. Rivett discovered the line on the succeeding play, but Zach Wanner kept his team ahead by two. Reilly returned the favor as the score read 17-16 in favor of the Eagles. Wanner needled one through Reilly and McManamon, giving Rumbaugh the idea of calling the game's first time out as his team trailed, 19-16. Reilly hoped up for a murderous kill following the breather, leading to each squad swapping errors. The Eagles' Matt Werle and Dan Powers joined for a block and Matt Fritz poked the corner on his service attempt, but McManamon scored on a change-up to keep his group within three, 22-19. Juniata then perpetrated two consecutive errors, but McManamon backed into the mesh and Juniata took advantage by attacking on the next play. Dan Powers powered one over Conley's head and Rumbaugh decided his second timeout should be utilized as the score read 25-21 in favor of the foe. Rivett executed good form on his kill attempt after the break, but pushed it just wide. Juniata also blundered, but Varee missed on his serve and the Eagles put up another notch on an SFU error. Varee watched his kill fall onto enemy territory, but Juniata claimed game one after registering the next two points, 30-23. The Red Flash fell slight to the Eagles defensive efforts. Juniata dug 13 balls to SFU's eight. The Eagles also converted 13 kills on 26 attempts (.308) compared to the Flash's same number of kills despite a total of 38 attempts (.105). Rivett paced Saint Francis with four kills on 14 swings.
Game two was privy to quite an opening rally, but Juniata's Zach Wanner came away with the kill to end the first rally. Reilly miscalculated his following smack, as did Juniata's Dan Powers on his serve. The Eagles scored on the next play, but Varee sliced into the lead with his third kill on the evening. Freyer and Varee crammed the Eagles next attempt, but it fell outside the boundary. The exact same play was replicated, yet the roles were reversed for whom the points were given credit to. Each squad traded service errors, but Eagles' Evan Halteman utilized some trickeration to put his team up two. Once again, each club missed on their serves, but Halteman tallied his second point of game two. An Eagles' error and a Rivett corner counter moved the Flash to within one. Two bartered errors nudged the score to 9-8, Juniata College. The Eagles went up two, but after Halteman turned the serve over, McManamon rendered the Eagles' error into his first ace of the game. Varee cracked the tie, 14-12, and Matt Fritz half-heartedly blistered one into his own side of the net to turn the Flash's lead into three. Freyer and Conley forced Juniata's head coach, Jeremy Price, to take his first time out the match after the stuffed the Eagles' attacking endeavor, 16-12. Varee erupted for his first ace after Price's breather, but Juniata sent two hot swats towards the Flash's side, causing the score to be 17-14, SFU. Evan Halteman put another point on his side, but Varee erased that kill with one of his own. Halteman's lofty frame tallied another score, but a Juniata net infraction kept the Flash up three, 19-16. Juniata craftily attacked for two more tallies and then eventually game two was drawn even after Rivett's block fell out of bounds. Varee put it out to 20-19, but SFU's error knotted the game back up. Two off-setting errors gave way to a Freyer's attack that pushed the Flash out by one, 22-21. Price called for his team's second timeout of the game after Dan Powers' attempt missed. After the hiatus, SFU forced Juniata to go long, but Juniata's Craig Harvey swatted one up the middle, changing the score to 24-22, SFU. Reilly came through for a monumental kill as Conley tried to follow up with a block, but ended up falling wide. Juniata drew to within two, but Matt Werle's serve churned out another SFU point. Juniata shifted their position to trail by just one, but Saint Francis proved to be too strong in game two, turning Wednesday's affair into a 1-1 score. The Red Flash alleged victory, 30-26, as Varee steered the Flash with five kills. Rivett hit for .600 (three kills on five attempts), assisting in his team's higher attacking average, .314 to .261.
Rivett kick started game three off with an errant kill, but Halteman's serve mimicked Rivett's attempt. An illegal hit from the Flash pushed Juniata out by one, 2-1, in the early moments of game three. Rivett rectified his first miss with a big kill and the Flash claimed the lead with McManamon's second ace of the match. Freyer and Varee packed Juniata's next swing, but McManamon and Varee missed on the following two plays, putting forth another tie, 4-4. Freyer jumped on top of Juniata's error to hand the Flash a two-point lead, but Dan Powers whittled SFU's lead to one. Varee smashed another point, but Juniata countered, trailing by one, 7-6. Reilly boomed one through the Eagles' next, but Juniata College's Zach Bock notched a score directly after. Bock copied his prior score on the following play and Varee's errant swing gave Juniata the lead, 9-8. Following an SFU blocking error, Bock struck on a service ace, but Reilly kept the Flash in game three, 11-9, with a table-turning kill. Saint Francis tallied following Reilly's score. The Flash tied the game back to 12 thanks to a McManamon and Varee stuff. Juniata quickly severed ties with the tie, but Varee grow fond of keeping the game tied by punishing one towards Juniata. Rivett then followed suit. Dual Flash's errors returned the advantage to the Eagles, 16-15. Rivett hurriedly reknotted game three, but Wanner undid the loop with a stern swat. Each team scrapped to a 20-20 tie with vivacious play from both sides, but a Rivett kill and a Reilly ace compelled Price to call a timeout as his team lagged behind the Flash, 22-20. Rivett notched a block succeeding the timeout, but Dan Powers put up a forceful point of his own following the block. Rivett continued on his successful night by scoring the Flash's 24th point, but Juniata kept it close, 24-21, with a kill from Matt Fritz. Zach Wanner's wayward serve turned into another Juniata error, as Saint Francis moved out to a four-point advantage. A flurry of SFU's kills and conscious pushed SFU to the brink of victory, 2-1. Game three's final score concluded by a tally of 30-24. Saint Francis dominated offensively once again, dominating in the accuracy department, .343. to .172. Rivett led to Flash for the second time of the evening with six kills in game three. Freyer batted 1.000 on three swings, also. The Flash dictated defensively, too, moving out to a six to two lead in blocking.
The antenna turned away Juniata's first attempt of game four, but Conley got anxious and went long on SFU's second serve of the game. Varee tallied on a tipped ball off of an Eagle's hand followed by a nasty kill from Rivett. Juniata trailed by three after their next attempt was denied by the net. McManamon tallied a solo block, and the next few plays continued SFU's way as they maintained a three point lead, 7-4. Reilly extended the advantage to four, and a triple block by Reilly, Freyer and Conley thrust the lead to five, 9-4. As the score moved to 11-6, Conley lengthened the lead to six with the game's first ace. Juniata defied the Flash for the next three points, but Rivett tricked Juniata's outside hitter, turning game four into a 13-8 affair. Reilly put forth the Flash's second ace, turning into a seven point lead for SFU, 15-8. Price called for a bout of recuperation following SFU's charge. Reilly strung together an additional after the break, but Zack Bock finally found the scoreboard on the next turn of events. Rivett held the lead at eight with an uncompromising kill. Freyer performed the same as his companion as the count read 18-10. Juniata formulated the next three points, but Varee put an end to the Eagles' point party with the tally looking like 19-13. The Eagles won the next two of three points to delve into SFU's big lead, but Reilly lofted a crafty kill over Zack Bock to retain a six point lead. Juniata attempted to inch back into game four, but a change up from McManamon preserved SFU's six point advantage, 24-18. Juniata stealthily tiptoed to within one point of Saint Francis, 29-28, but Rivett's match-ending kill finished off their Tait Division competition as game four concluded with a 30-28 final. The Flash outwhacked the Eagles once again, . 375 to .194. Rivett continued his torrent pace, leading the Flash with five kills on nine swings, en route to a .556 attacking clip in game four.
The Flash get back to EIVA Tait Division business when they host the Princeton Tigers, in their ninth straight home game. Saint Francis clashes with division opponent Princeton University on Friday, February 15, at 7pm in DeGol Arena. Saint Francis has two more home games versus Tait Division rivals, East Stroudsburg (Sunday, February 17 @ 2pm) and NJIT (Friday, February 22 @7pm) before they hit the road for the first time in over a month when they travel to Happy Valley to challenge the highly touted Penn State on Saturday, February 23 at 7pm.
