LORETTO, Pa. – Junior Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa. / Conneaut Valley) hit .528 with 25 kills, two aces, seven digs and four blocks, and the Saint Francis men's volleyball team withstood a fierce Juniata comeback in a 3-1 victory between EIVA Tait Division rivals on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena.
Junior Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y. / Orchard Park) hit 1.000 through the first two sets to help the Red Flash stake a 2-0 lead. He finished with 15 kills, a .522 hitting percentage, four digs and six blocks, while senior setter Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) had 56 assists and five kills. Junior Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel) added 13 kills and eight digs, junior Alex Fortney (York, PA/Central York) (York, Pa. Central York) had nine kills, four assists, one ace, five digs and three blocks, and freshman libero John Wappler (Warrendale, Pa. / North Allegheny) had 11 digs and four assists.
Zach Wanner paced the Eagles with 17 kills, two aces and six digs, Evan Halteman had 11 kills and two blocks to go with a .556 hitting percentage, and Matt Werle dished out 45 assists and had 11 digs.
Saint Francis improved to 6-3 overall, and 3-2 in the EIVA Tait Division, while Juniata dropped to 4-3 overall, and 2-2 in the division.
Set one began with the Eagles and Red Flash jockeying for momentum. They traded points through 7-7 before SFU took the largest lead by either team, 10-7, with a 3-0 run. Juniata fell behind by three points at 10-7 and 12-9 until the Red Flash took control with a five-point lead, 17-12, forcing Eagles coach Jeremy Price into a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Juniata had a third straight hitting error to fall behind by six, but won three of the next four serves to cut it to 19-15. Freyer gave the Red Flash a 22-17 with a kill, sparking a 7-2 run to put the set out of reach at 28-19. Varee closed it out with a kill down the right side to give SFU the 30-19 victory. Saint Francis hit .405 as a team in the first set, and was paced by Varee and Freyer with five kills each. Freyer hit 1.000 in the set, and Conley dished out 16 assists.
The Red Flash jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the second set, but the Eagles stayed close and tied the set a few times. However, SFU again took control and won four straight serves to force the Eagles into another timeout with a 12-7 deficit. Juniata came out of the break with two straight points before Conley tipped a dig over for a 13-9 Red Flash lead. The Eagles battled back to within two points at 16-14 and 18-16, but SFU pulled ahead 23-18 on a Varee kill and a hitting error. Juniata put a scare into the Flash by battling back to within 26-23, but a service error and a block by Varee and Freyer took away any doubt to make it 28-23, and Freyer closed it out with a kill to give SFU a 30-25 win and a 2-0 lead heading into intermission. Freyer hit 1.000 again in the second set with four kills, and Varee led the way with five kills. Conley added 12 more assists and the Red Flash hit .333.
Saint Francis took an early 6-4 lead in the third set after a Varee kill over three blockers, but a loud Juniata fan base gave a spark to their team. The Eagles came back and took their first lead since early in the first set at 7-6. It was a back-and-forth battle throughout and Juniata forced the Red Flash into at timeout with two straight points to take a 13-12 lead. A long rally coming out of the timeout was won by Rivett, who slowly tipped a set over three blockers to tie it at 13-13. The match was again tied at 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 before the Eagles won two straight points to take their largest lead thus far at 20-18. They stretched that lead to 24-20 with back-to-back kills by Halteman and Dan Powers, and a hitting error by SFU. The Red Flash took a timeout to settle things down. McManamon took care of settling things down out of the break with a kill straight down to make it 24-21, but Powers answered back with a kill of his own and Juniata never looked back in winning the set 30-24. The Eagles hit .500 in the third set and was paced by Wanner with six kills, while Werle had 15 assists. Varee had 10 kills in the set while hitting .643, and the Red Flash had a .364 hitting percentage.
Neither team led by more than one in the fourth set until Rivett had back-to-back kills and junior Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon) and Varee added a block to turn a 6-5 SFU deficit into an 8-6 lead. But Juniata battled back to tie it at 8-8. Saint Francis took another two-point lead, 12-10, on a Varee kill out of the back row, but Powers put away a kill and Vrooman and Powers added a block to tie it back up. The set was again tied at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. Trailing 19-18, the Red Flash won three straight serves on a Conley kill, a block by Fortney and McManamon and a hitting error to take a 21-19 lead and force the Eagles into a timeout. Powers made it 21-20 with a kill, but Conley came up with back-to-back big plays to give SFU a 23-20 lead. He put away a kill off a dig, and then set up Varee with a great set for a kill. Rivett then came out of the back row for another kill to make it 24-20, Saint Francis' largest lead of the set to that point. Juniata scrambled on the next serve, but McManamon put away a tip for a five-point Flash lead, and then an unforced error made it 26-20. The Eagles began to chip away and had SFU on its heels a 4-1 run that forced Rumbaugh into a timeout with a 27-24 lead. Mike Kraft came out of the break and just missed the back line on a serve to give Saint Francis a 28-24 lead. However, a Wanner kill, an Alex Bahn ace and a hitting error pulled Juniata within 28-27 as the Red Flash called another timeout. Conley served up a great assist to Varee for a kill that set up match point for SFU, 29-27, and Powers' final attack went out of bounds to clinch the win for Saint Francis at 30-27.
