FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Apr. 11, 2008) – Sophomores Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel) and Jordan Varee (Meadville, Pa. / Conneaut Valley) posted 26 and 22 kills, respectively, to lead the Saint Francis men's volleyball team to a remarkable comeback in a 3-2 victory at IPFW on Friday night.
The 22-30, 29-31, 30-28, 30-26, 16-14 victory was the first-ever for the Red Flash over the Mastodons. Rivett's 26 kills marked a career high, and he hit .458 with just four errors on 48 swings. He added seven digs and three blocks. Varee hit .385 and posted two aces, nine digs and four blocks. Freshman Doug Dzurko (Latrobe, Pa. / Greater Latrobe) earned his first career start and had three kills, no errors, a .375 hitting percentage and five blocks.
Senior setter Mark Steele (Martinsburg, Pa. / Central Martinsburg) dished out 58 assists, and freshman Eric Syty (Clarence, N.Y. / Clarence) added six kills and a career high seven blocks in the match.
Jason Yhost had a team-high 21 kills for IPFW, while C.J. Macias added 20 kills and Graydon Ainsworth dished out a match-high 64 assists.
The Red Flash improved to 12-13 overall with the win, and will now travel to Loyola (Ill.) for a 7 p.m. match on Saturday night.
Trailing 2-0 in the match and 28-26 in Game 3, Saint Francis was on the ropes. However, Syty came up with a big kill to pull SFU within one point. Two straight IPFW attack errors put the Red Flash in position to steal Game 3, and sophomore Chad Martson (Whitehall, Pa. / Whitehall) served up an ace to give Saint Francis a 30-28 win to pull his team within 2-1 in the match.
The Red Flash led throughout most of Game 4, but the Mastodons were even at 18-18 when SFU took over. Back-to-back kills by Varee and Steele gave the Red Flash a 20-18 lead, and SFU would never relinquish that lead on its way to a 30-26 win.
The Red Flash appeared to be in control of Game 5 when they went on an 8-1 run to take a commanding 10-3 lead in the first-to-15 game. However, IPFW responded with a 10-3 run of its own to get back in it at 13-13. Rivett put away a kill to give SFU its first shot at match point, but Macias responded with a kill of his own to tie it back up at 14-14. But Rivett came away with another kill and Yhost's attack error secured the thrilling victory for Saint Francis at 16-14.
