PRINCETON, N.J. (Feb. 27, 2010) - In their final match before a two-week layoff, the Red Flash dropped a 3-2 (28-30, 30-25, 30-28, 24-30, 9-15) decision to the Princeton Tigers on Saturday, dropping the Flash to 1-3 in the EIVA Tait and 8-7 overall.

After starting out the season 6-3, the Red Flash have gone 2-4 since a five-match winning streak that was capped with a victory over Harvard on 1/24.  The chief foil for the Red Flash has been the MIVA; the Red Flash have gone 1-4 against the conference in 2010.  However, the Red Flash have also had trouble in their own conference, losing all of their EIVA Tait matches with the exception of a 3-1 win over Juniata on 2/23.

Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) and Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) each tied for the match-high with 27 kills; for Rivett, the 27 kills represented a career-high and were his 13th consecutive match with double-digit kills.  For Varee, it was his fifth straight match with more than 20 kills; in three of those matches, he posted 25 or more.

The Tigers went coast-to-coast in the first set, opening up with a Jeff McCown kill that was quickly matched by Rivett.  After the teams traded a pair of points, the Tigers went on a 3-0 run to make the score 5-2.  With the score 13-9 in favor of Princeton, SFU went on a 5-1 run that was punctuated by a Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour)/Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, PA/Huntingdon) (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) block to tie the match at 14-14.  A pair of Varee attack errors set the Flash back, and that gave the Tigers the opening they needed to build the lead they would not relinquish.  The Flash would pull it as close as 29-28, but Vincent Tuminelli sealed the win with a kill.

The second set also began with a Tiger lead, but the Flash were able to take the 2-1 lead on an Alex Fortney (York, PA/Central York) (York, Pa./Central York) service ace.  Carl Hamming's kill would tie the match at 4-4, but McManamon would break the tie with a kill that the Red Flash would hold the rest of the set. Rivett had a set-high seven kills to pace the Red Flash in the 30-25 victory.

The Tigers put the pressure on the Red Flash in the third set, opening up on a big 7-3 run.  Their lead would stand for a long time, as the Red Flash chipped away but could not overcome the deficit.  Princeton would build perhaps their most important lead to 25-20, but the Flash embarked on a 10-3 run to close the set.  After tying the score on a Williams/Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) block, the Flash sealed the win with a Freyer kill.

Princeton AGAIN opened the second set on a big run, beginning 8-3.  However, this time the Tigers made the lead stick.  Princeton hit .452 in the fourth set; despite Varee's nine kills, the Red Flash were unable to overcome the hot-hitting Tigers.  Pat Schwagler added seven kills in the set, which ended 30-24 in Princeton's favor.

The Tigers solidly controlled play in the fifth and final set, going 9-for-10 in sideouts in the decisive frame.  The Tigers began the set 5-1, and the closest the Red Flash got after that was 6-4 on a Rivett kill.  With Carl Hamming serving, Princeton won the match on a Greg Wilson/Michael Dye block, followed by a Dye kill.

Rivett's 27 kills were accompanied by a .358 hitting percentage, four aces, five digs and one block.  Varee added three aces, giving him 131 for his career; he is now the career leader for aces at SFU in both the rally scoring and side-out eras.  Freyer was the third Flash player in double-digits in kills, recording 13; he also tied with McManamon for the team lead with three blocks.  John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Warrendale, Pa./North Allegheny) had a team-high 11 digs.