UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 3 seed Saint Francis men's volleyball team rebounded from a tough third-set loss to take a big lead in the fourth frame, but No. 2 Juniata rallied to hand the Red Flash a gut-wrenching 3-1 loss in an EIVA semifinal match on Thursday night at Recreation Hall on the campus of Penn State University.
The Eagles won a tight contest by 30-28, 26-30, 30-26, 33-31 scores to advance to Saturday night's EIVA championship match versus either No. 1 Penn State or No. 5 George Mason.
The Red Flash end their season with a 15-15 mark, suffering their first loss in three appearances in the EIVA semifinals.
Senior setter Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) ended a brilliant career with 52 assists, six digs and two blocks. He broke his own single-season assists record with 1,318 in 2009, and finished his career with a school record 4,477 assists.
Freshman libero John Wappler (Warrendale, Pa. / North Allegheny) had a career-high 23 digs in the match, which sits second on the school's single-match list, two shy of Zach Nanni (Sewickley, Pa./North Allegheny)'s school record of 25.
Junior opposite Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa. / Conneaut Valley) tallied a match-high 27 kills to go with nine digs, three blocks and two service aces. He now has 101 career aces, most in program history. His 1,366 career kills are also a school record, and he finished the 2009 season with a school-record 597 kills. Junior Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel) had 17 kills, eight digs , three aces and two blocks.
Evan Halteman and Dan Powers paced the Juniata attack. Halteman hit .682 with 15 kills on 22 swings, while Powers hit .571 with 13 kills and just one error on 21 attacks.
The first set was a sign of things to come after the Red Flash rallied from an early deficit to make it a back-and-forth affair. After junior Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y. / Orchar park) put SFU on the board with a big slam, the Eagles won three straight serves to jump out 4-1, and then held its biggest lead of the set at 7-3. Saint Francis began to chip away and got the deficit down to two points on another Freyer kill to make it 14-12. Juniata again won the next two serves to match its largest lead at 16-12 and then again at 17-13. However, Fortney started a Red Flash run with a kill and was followed by back-to-back kills by Rivett and Varee to make it 17-16. Trailing 19-17, Varee had another kill and a Juniata hitting error tied the set at 19-19. SFU would eventually take its first lead at 22-21, but the Eagles won four of the next five serves to jump out 25-23. They would lead by two at 26-24, 27-25, and 28-26 when Powers put away his third ace of the set to make it 29-26. The Red Flash won the next two serves to put a scare into Juniata, but Zach Wanner put away a kill after a long rally to put the Eagles up 1-0 in the match. The teams were even in the hitting department as Juniata hit .214, and SFU hit .212. However, the Red Flash served up 10 service errors and were out-blocked 2.0 to none.
Saint Francis came out with a different intensity in the second set, but it the Eagles made it a battle. Varee started the set with a kill, and back-to-back Juniata hitting errors made it 3-0 in favor of the Flash. SFU will build its lead to 6-1 before the Eagles began to chip away at the lead in forcing the Red Flash into a timeout with a slim 9-8 lead. Juniata tied it up at 10-10 for the first tie of the set, and the teams would go on to tie a total of 12 times in the set before Varee and McManamon had back-to-back block assists to give the Red Flash a 24-22 lead. They were the first two blocks for SFU in the match. Juniata won the next serve on a hitting error, but Rivett and Varee forced the Eagles into a timeout with two straight kills, respectively, to make it 26-23. Juniata came out of the break with a hitting error to make it 27-23 before Powers came up with a kill to stop the bleeding at 27-24. But Freyer and Conley had back-to-back kills to give SFU a chance at set point. After a Wanner kill, Powers had a hitting error that clinched the second set victory for the Red Flash, 30-26. SFU had a .297 to .216 hitting percentage advantage in the second set, and had a 2.0 to 1.0 edge in blocks.
The third set was much like the first two in that the team's traded leads and ties early on. There were eight ties through a 14-14 game, but Juniata pulled away with some errors by the Red Flash. SFU got caught out of rotation twice and had a center line violation. The second out-of-rotation call gave the Eagles a commanding 28-22 lead. After a Red Flash service error made it 29-23, they rallied to make it 29-26. However, Powers gave Juniata a 2-1 lead with another kill, clinching the set at 30-26.
The Red Flash jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead in the fourth set, and appeared to be on their way to cruising to a 2-2 tie in the match with a 17-10 lead. However, Juniata used a 7-1 run to get right back into it, trailing just 18-17. The Eagles took their first lead of the set at 25-24 and never trailed again. They had their first match point attempt with a 29-27 lead, but a Powers service error and a Freyer kill gave SFU new life. Evan Vrooman then followed with another kill to set up third try at match point, but Varee tied it up at 30-30. Vrooman set up another chance for match point with another kill, but Varee answered back again to tie it at 31-31. However, Halteman then followed with a kill and a block assist by Matt Werle and Powers clinched the match with Juniata's 33-31 win in the fourth set.
Saint Francis Head coach Mike Rumbaugh
Opening Statement:
“Tough loss. A tough one to swallow right now. It was two very evenly matched teams. Every match we've played with them has been a battle, and this battle we came up on the losing side of it. Congratulations to Juniata, and I wish them luck against whoever they have to play in the next match.”
Momentum after being up 17-10:
“The frustrating part about that was that Evan Halteman was the kid serving that one. The same thing happened at Juniata when we played there. Game 1 we had a nice sizeable lead and they came in with a little float serve, and spot served on us and we started to side-out. I think it was in the back of our minds a little bit.”
Saint Francis senior Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny)
Were you starting to feel the pressure of this possibly being the last match?
“I don't know if it had anything to do with the last match or not, but all season we have sort of struggled with one server every match. He was putting the ball right where he wanted to, and it's a tough serve to pass and move inside-out. All the credit to Juniata because it's tough to come back from seven points down.”
Juniata Head Coach Jeremy Price
Opening Statement:
“Obviously I'm pleased with the outcome. It wasn't the prettiest match that we've played all year. Definitely the best team we've seen in the last month. We've played out of conference with the Molten championship and our match against East Stroudsburg. I think one of the keys to our match was how solid our practice gym has been, and competitive there. That's kept us somewhat sharp. We looked not-so-much match ready the first couple games, and then I think finally about halfway through Game 4 when we were down seven that we finally started to pass and run our offense. Our pin hitters finally got going a little bit even though they didn't necessarily have their best night. I thought Anthony Damiano played really well with 18 digs, and I thought Werle ran the middle from some really tough spots – 10 to 12 feet – and both Evan and Dan were real fast. I thought that was the difference was that we were able to run the middle a few more times than they were.”
When you were down seven in that fourth game, did you start to feel the momentum change?
“They had three (hitting errors) in five points. And then the other one they gave us a free ball, so we only had to earn one of those. That was a big stretch because we went from down 17-10 to down 18-17 in two rotations. I thought that really turned the match.”
Juniata senior setter Matt Werle
How hard was it to go to the outside?
“It was tough. When you have such great middles that we do, and when the passing is there, it's tough not to give the middles the ball. Our outsides struggled a little bit at times tonight, but they put the ball away at crucial times and they did some big things for us. And our middles, they can't be stopped right now.”
