Box Score

LORETTO, Pa. (April 5, 2012) – As the season draws closer to its end, the Saint Francis University men's volleyball team took one step closer to an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association playoff berth with a straight sets win (25-17, 25-19, 25-23) over visiting Sacred Heart Thursday night at DeGol Arena.

Other than falling behind Sacred Heart (5-19, 2-10 EIVA) 2-1 as the first set opened, the Red Flash (12-13, 7-5 EIVA) evened things up at 2-2 and then took a 3-2 lead and did not trail from that point on. Saint Francis put space between themselves and the Pioneers as the opening set neared its end, securing seven of the final nine points scored and went up 1-0 in the match.

In the second set the Flash again never trailed but Sacred Heart put up a hard fought battle as the set drew to a close. With SFU up 21-13, the Pioneers collected six of the next nine points to draw to a 24-19 deficit. Fortunately for Saint Francis a service error by SHU gave the Flash set point and propelled them to the 2-0 lead heading into, what would be, the final set.

The third set resulted in a much closer finish than the previous two but Saint Francis still did not have to play catch up for a majority of the set. A kill from Adam Barba (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) put SFU up 17-13 halfway through until the Pioneers rattled off three consecutive points to come to within one point of the Flash. That would be as close as they would get until they pushed the score to 24-23 near the sets end with the Flash at set and match point. A final kill from senior John Skarupa (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegehny) kept the sweep alive and lifted Saint Francis to the straight sets win.

Alex Kane (York, Pa./West York) put up a match-high 11 kills for the Red Flash on 15 swings, good for an attack percentage of .667. Kane also chipped in five total blocks, along with Logan Patterson (Derry, Pa./Derry Area) and Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour). Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) had the big night in terms of blocking. Roche, who is currently ranked third in the nation in blocks per set, recorded 12 blocking assists, one off the pace of his career-best.

Saint Francis concludes the home portion of its 2012 schedule tomorrow night with a 7 p.m. matchup against EIVA foe Harvard where the Red Flash will honor its four seniors.