HUNTINGDON, Pa. (March 31, 2010) – The Kennedy Sports + Recreation Complex on the campus of Juniata College has long been a house of horrors for the Red Flash. In particular, the six seniors of the Red Flash's Class of 2010 have never won here, citing the loud, bandbox-style bleachers and the odd placement of balconies and a hanging scoreboard as minor mental disadvantages, not to mention the typically pretty-darn-good team the Eagles field.
So, when asked if their memories of the Kennedy Complex would now brighten a bit after the Red Flash took a 3-1 (30-27, 30-27, 24-30, 30-28) decision on Wednesday, it was not surprising to hear the seniors unanimous in their opinions of their feelings.
“No, I'm not going to miss this place,” said senior middle Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park).
“Absolutely not,” said Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley). “This is one of the toughest places to play I've been in.”
Nonetheless, the Red Flash played one of their finest matches of the season, taking the key EIVA Tait victory. The Red Flash are now 10-11 overall, 3-5 in Tait play and fifth in the conference; the Eagles fall to 6-12 overall, 2-6 in the Tait and currently in the cellar.
The win assures that the Red Flash will hold the tiebreaker with the Eagles, essentially giving SFU a two-game lead and bolstering their chances to improve their seed in the playoff hunt.
“I thought the quality of play was very high tonight, both teams played at a high level,” said Red Flash coach Mike Rumbaugh. “We knew it was going to come down to who could control their serves the best.”
Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) opened the scoring with the first kill of the match, and local product Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, PA/Huntingdon) (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) added the next point as the Red Flash opened with a 3-1 run. Juniata's rebuttal came in the form of a service ace from Ben Wolf, but the Red Flash were able to rebuild the lead to 6-4. The Eagles tied it on a block, but Freyer launched a kill to put the Red Flash back up 8-7.
The teams battled through the set, with the Red Flash taking advantage of Juniata breakdowns. With the teams still close, it was a pair of acrobatic plays by Tyler Mattera (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley)(Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) that may have swung the momentum in favor of the Flash. Leading 27-25, Mattera made a leaping one-handed dig on the near side of the court to save an almost-certain point. With the rally still continuing, Mattera somehow regained his position to stuff Zach Wanner and force a Juniata timeout. The Red Flash ultimately took the set on a ball-handling error 30-27.
The second set opened up with both teams trading points, including Zach Wanner making a pinpoint crosscourt swing to make it 2-2 and Ben Wolff giving the Eagles the 3-2 lead with a kill and adding to it with a block of Rivett. Mike Kraft's block of Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) made the score 5-2 and forced Red Flash coach Mike Rumbaugh into a timeout. Kraft began to take over, notching consecutive kills to put the Eagles up 8-3.
Facing an uphill battle, the Red Flash went on a 7-4 run to pull within 12-10. However, Wanner ripped a kill to again lengthen the lead. After Varee answered with a kill of his own, his tough serve led directly to an Eagles attack error that brought the Red Flash to within 13-12. Varee would later tie the score at 15 with another kill, and a Rivett swing would go off the fingertips of Evan Halteman to give the Red Flash the lead.
After Juniata tied the score at 18, the Red Flash got consecutive kills from Rivett and Varee to put the Flash up 20-18. After Varee's serve was dug back over the net and slammed home by Rivett, a Juniata attack error prompted Eagles coach Jeremy Price to call a timeout at 23-19. The lead grew to five on a McManamon kill. The Eagles were able to slash the deficit to one point at 28-27, with their run punctuated by a Wanner kill. Rivett was able to douse the rally with a cross court kill that ended up in the mezzanine, and the set was finally taken 30-27 on a Varee/McManamon block.
The teams traded the first four points of the third set, with Rivett and McManamon combining for a block to give the team at 3-2 lead. McManamon and Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) recorded a pair of blocks on the right side of the court to give the Red Flash a sizable 7-3 lead early, but a 7-5 Juniata run put it back within reach at 12-10, after a long rally where both teams had to play the ball off the scoreboard hanging over the middle of the court. Freyer put a ball away to put the lead back to 13-10, but the Eagles responded with a Chris Vrooman kill.
At 16-13 SFU, John Almquist of Juniata faked a set for the tip kill, and then Vrooman launched another kill to pull the Eagles to within 16-15. The Red Flash responded with three quick points, one on a kill by Rivett, the next by ace on Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park)'s subsequent serve, and the last on a Mattera kill that led to Juniata calling timeout, down 19-16. After another Red Flash point, Juniata recorded four straight points to tie the score at 20, with the rally punctuated by a Wanner kill that forced an SFU timeout.
Juniata scored on the next point after the timeout to take the lead 21-20, and after a spirited rally scored on a Mike Kraft joust with Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) to force another Red Flash timeout. Their four-point lead evaporated and turned into a two-point hole, the Red Flash watched a Vrooman serve go out of bounds to regain their equilibrium. However, the Eagles continued to push, now with the crowd in full swing, and built the lead to 27-23, ultimately winning the set 30-24.
The fourth set began 4-4, with each team making a pair of unsightly miscues – Juniata blockers tipped a ball out of bounds despite the fact it was not going over the net, and Tyler Mattera (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) reached for a ball clearly going out of bounds. The Red Flash built a small 8-5 lead, highlighted by a Varee kill that was launched high into the rafters on the attempted dig. The Eagles responded with a 7-3 run, as Mike Kraft blocked a Red Flash attack to tie the score at 11-11, followed by a McManamon attack error to give Juniata the lead.
The two teams continued to plug away, with Ben Wolff notching a kill to his left to put the Eagles up 17-15 and force a Red Flash timeout. The Red Flash tied it at 18 on a Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) kill, and later an Eagles attack error kept it tied at 19-19. The teams again traded points to tie the score at 20, and a block error by Evan Halteman put the Red Flash ahead 21-20. On the next rally, Halteman put a ball out of bounds to give Saint Francis a 22-20 lead and force a Juniata timeout to regroup.
The Eagles scored immediately after the timeout, but a deft Varee tip kept the Eagles at arm's length. The Red Flash upped the ante and eventually the lead swelled to four points, as a Freyer kill made it 26-22 before Jeremy Price used his final timeout of the set. After a small 3-2 Juniata run, the score was 28-25 in favor of SFU before Varee ripped a kill to force match point. Chris Vrooman recorded a kill to keep the set alive, and after a McManamon attack error the score was just 29-27. Varee put one out of bounds immediately after, and what once seemed like a sure victory was now a slim 29-28 lead for the Red Flash. However, Varee atoned with the winning kill, pinballing it off Juniata player to the scoreboard and taking the 30-28 win.
Varee ended up with the match-high of 24 kills, also adding 12 digs for his seventh double-double of the season. John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Warrendale, Pa./North Allegheny) was a man possessed on the floor, recording a season-high 22 digs. In total, the Red Flash collected 72 digs, including 15 for Mattera and nine apiece for Rivett and Williams.
