Box Score

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (Feb. 17, 2012) – Following a straight sets win (25-15, 25-23, 25-11) Friday night over Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association foe Sacred Heart (4-8, 1-3 EIVA), the Saint Francis University men's volleyball team evened its overall record to 6-6 and kept its conference record undefeated at 3-0.

“Tonight was one of the most dominant performances that I can recall,” head coach Mike Rumbaugh said. “We played extremely well and had excellent blocking. We held two of league leaders from Sacred Heart to zero hitting percentage and negative hitting percentage. It was just a great team effort all around.”

The Red Flash posted a .389 hitting percentage for the match, while the Pioneers managed just a .038 mark. Both the first and third set were all SFU as they went on multiple runs throughout each of those respective sets to sail away from Sacred Heart. In set number one, the Flash posted ten consecutive points at one point to put them up big 15-5.

The second set was more tightly contested as SHU came within two points of the Red Flash. Saint Francis reached set point with the score set at 24-21, but Sacred Heart managed to put two points on the scoreboard to draw out the set just a
bit further. Senior Alex Kane (York, Pa./West York) put down the sets final kill however on the next play to give the Flash the second set win.

Kane led SFU with nine kills on 19 swings, good for a .368 attack percentage. Kane also put up big defensive numbers as he reached a season-best nine blocking assists. Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) tied Kane with nine blocks in the match as well but recorded one solo block and eight blocking assists. Nicholas Bancroft dug the ball 11 times while setter Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) dished out 24 assists in the win.

“Our blocking and the digs behind them were great,” Rumbaugh said. “In the third set we had 14 kills, no errors and were 100 percent on siding out. Tomorrow afternoon we face another dangerous team in Harvard and we are going to have to do another great job tomorrow.”

Saint Francis concludes its short two game road trip tomorrow at 4 p.m. when they take on Harvard in EIVA action.