LORETTO, Pa.  (Mar. 18, 2011) – In a match that saw 33 ties and 11 lead changes, the IPFW men's volleyball team prevailed 3-1 against Saint Francis on Friday night at DeGol Arena.

 

The Mastodons hit .308 as a team and held the Red Flash to a .256 hitting percentage in the 25-19, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22 road win.

 

Freshman Logan Patterson had a team-high 17 kills and 7 digs, and hit .314 for SFU, while classmate Colin Sherwin added a career-high 16 kills and 8 digs. Junior Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) dished out 46 assists.

 

Darryl Shank had a match-high 20 kills, while Ivan Matos contributed 15 for the Mastodons, who improved to 11-7 on the season.

 

Saint Francis fell to 8-9 on the year and will return to action with a 7 p.m. Saturday match against Ball State at DeGol Arena.

 

“We worked on projects this week to get more guys killing balls, and I thought we did that tonight,” said Saint Francis head coach Michael Rumbaugh. “Where we have fallen apart is at the end of games where the more experienced team comes away with the win. But I think we learned some things tonight and there are more positives to take away than negatives.”

 

There were 10 ties and two lead changes through the first 20 serves of the first set, but an attack error gave the Mastodons the lead for good, sparking a 6-2 run that put it out of reach. Trailing 16-12, Rumbaugh called a timeout and the Red Flash responded by cutting the deficit to three, 19-16, to force IPFW into a timeout. However, the Mastodons came out of the break by winning the first three serves and back-to-back kills by Eddie Rivera and Shank closed it out 25-19 in favor of IPFW.

 

The teams again traded two lead changes and six tie scores through 20 serves in the second set, but a Shank service error gave Saint Francis an 11-10 lead. The Red Flash built the lead to as large as five points on three different occasions and eventually closed it out on back-to-back points by senior Markus Schulze (Berlin, Germany/Anne Frank), who had an ace and a kill to make it 25-23.

 

The Mastodons jumped on SFU in the third set, building a 10-4 lead to take charge. However, IPFW hit .343 and held the Red Flash to a .194 hitting percentage to take a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-21 win.

 

The fourth set was another back-and-forth affair with 15 ties and five lead changes. Neither team led by more than two points until a Mastodons service error sparked a 4-1 run for Saint Francis to turn a 19-18 deficit into a 22-20 lead. IPFW called timeout and came out with five straight points to seal the match victory with a 25-22 win in the fourth set.

 

Schulze added 7 kills and 8 digs for the Red Flash, while sophomore Nick Bancroft (Centerville, Pa./Maplewood) added 10 digs and sophomore Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) pitched in with 5 kills, 3 aces and 3 blocks.

For all the latest information, notes, pictures and related links on Saint Francis men's volleyball, follow Director of Athletic Communications Bob Volkert on Twitter (@SFUVolkert) and check www.SFUathletics.com. The Red Flash are also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SFUAthletics.