LORETTO, Pa. (Jan. 26, 2011) - The Saint Francis men's volleyball team struggled offensively but used a stifling defensive presence to halt the offense of the Juniata Eagles, dropping their in-state rivals 3-1 (25-21, 19-25, 25-21, 29-27) in DeGol Arena.

"After we had such a strong offense in the first set, we started trapping ourselves in the second set and Juniata caught on," said Red Flash head coach Michael Rumbaugh.  "But I was happy to see that the guys got back in the match by going right after [the Eagles] as opposed to going around them."

The Red Flash improve to 2-2 overall, while the Eagles fall to 8-2 overall.  The win marks the third straight for the Red Flash against Juniata, only the third time the Red Flash have ever taken three straight matches in the 21-year-old rivalry.  The last time it happened was when Saint Francis won four straight matches between the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

The Red Flash did hit well in the first set, putting balls away at a .480 clip against Juniata.  Saint Francis opened up on a 7-3 run that was topped by a Logan Patterson kill.  The Eagles bounced back and took a 14-13 lead on a Mike Kraft service ace, but the Red Flash tied the match at 17-17 on a Chad Martson (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) kill and took the lead one point later on a Juniata service ace.  The Flash would not look back again, and took the set 25-21 on a Patterson ace.

Juniata showed great resolve in the second set, and earned themselves a tape-to-tape victory by virtue of their strong defense.  They held the Red Flash to just .029 hitting in the second set, and did not allow Saint Francis to get closer than three points after taking a 7-4 lead.  The Flash made a short run at the end but ultimately fell 25-19.

In the third set, neither team was able to put any distance between themselves and the other, and the set featured 13 tied scores and seven lead changes.  With the Flash trailing 20-19, Patterson registered a kill to tie the score, and Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) and Colin Sherwin combined for a pair of blocks in a row during the Flash's 5-0 run to give Saint Francis set point.  SFU ultimately took the set 25-21.

The decisive fourth set was defined by its wild conclusion, as the Eagles held a 22-20 advantage late but was unable to ice away the Red Flash.  Patterson followed with a kill to make it 22-21, and after an Eagle attack error the Flash took a 23-22 lead on a Martson put-away.  Juniata would reach set point at 24-23, but Martson stuffed one to make it 24-24.  The teams traded kills back and forth until 27-27, when Juniata's Chris Vrooman was blocked on consecutive plays from the tandems of Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) / Martson and Patterson / Roche for the 29-27 SFU win.

Saint Francis was led in kills by Patterson and Sherwin, who each recorded 12 kills; Martson also reached double-digits with 10 kills.  John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) had 18 digs for the second consecutive match, passing Matt Farabaugh for fifth-most digs in the rally-scoring era in the process.  Wappler entered the match leading the EIVA in digs.  Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) finished one dig shy of a double-double; he had 48 assists, nine digs, one kill, one ace, and one block.