LORETTO, Pa. (Feb. 23, 2011) -  The Saint Francis men's volleyball team had a blazing first set win, but the #11 Penn State Nittany Lions righted the ship and reeled off three straight set wins to snap the Red Flash's three-match win streak with a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 16-25, 18-25) match at DeGol Arena.

The Red Flash fall to 7-6 overall, 2-4 in the EIVA Tait, while the Nittany Lions improve to 12-3 overall, 5-0 in the EIVA Tait.  The match concludes an 11-match homestand for the Red Flash; they will have just five more home matches for the rest of the season.

"I thought the first two sets were some really exciting volleyball," said Red Flash head coach Michael Rumbaugh.  "We got really good support from our fans tonight and it helped us start out really strong.  We couldn't keep up that momentum, but credit Penn State for rebounding after the first set."

The first set consisted of some of the finest volleyball seen this season, as both teams showed they were ready to play in the 29th edition of the Keystone Clash.  The Red Flash in particular seemed to have an extra hop in their step, thanks to the large partisan crowd at DeGol Arena.  Tied at 21-21, John Skarupa (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegehny) broke the stalemate with a kill that forced a Penn State timeout.  The teams traded points until a float serve from Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) turned into a set-winning ace at 25-22.  The Red Flash hit a blistering .617 in the first set, including a 5-0-7 performance from Logan Patterson and a 3-0-3 performance from Skarupa.

The second set was even more exciting than the first, except this time the Nittany Lions were the ones that took advantage.  Skarupa and Chad Martson (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) cut a PSU lead to one point by blocking a Tom Comfort attack, making it 23-22, but the Nittany Lions notched the last two points to make it 25-22.

Penn State was in control the rest of the way, though, as they allowed the Red Flash to lead just one time combined over the final two sets.  After a 25-16 coast-to-coast win in the third set, the Nittany Lions successfully held off a late rally in the fourth set to take the set 25-18 and the match 3-1.

Patterson led the Red Flash offense with a career-high 17 kills and hit .483, and added five digs, three blocks, and one ace.  Skarupa had 10 kills and hit .500, and also added two blocks, two digs, and one ace.