BOX SCORE LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis men's volleyball team swept Rutgers-Newark on Friday night at DeGol Arena in its EIVA home opener. The Red Flash won the match 25-12, 25-16 and 25-15.
 
Mark Kochan (Towaco, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) and Jeremy Gaston (Tarentum, Pa./Deer Lakes) each led the Flash in game one with three kills with Kochan hitting 1.000. Kochan added four block assists while Adam Barba (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) had two kills and three block assists. After the Scarlet Raiders scored the first point, SFU scored the next four points and eight of the next 11. Rutgers-Newark tried to climb back into the match when it made the score 17-13. But a 6-1 run keyed by a pair of Barba aces and a Kochan block made it 23-14. SFU hit .400 in game one.
 
The Flash only hit .143 in game two, but Kyle Beatty (Saegertown, Pa./Saegertown) led the Flash with three kills while hitting .286. Lucas Behringer (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) had four digs. A kill and a block by Mike Marshman (Glenmont, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) and a kill by Gaston propelled the Flash to a 7-1 run as the team took an early 8-4 lead. With the score 17-13 in favor of SFU, Barba served the Flash to a 4-0 run including a pair of aces. The Red Flash defense held Rutgers-Newark to a .000 hitting percentage in the game.
 
Beatty again led the way with five kills and a .500 hitting percentage in game three as the Flash completed the sweep as it hit .407. Leading 11-9, Kochan had a kill and Beatty had an ace to start a 7-1 run. With Kochan serving, the Flash scored five in a row to push the lead to 18-10.
 
Beatty led the way in the match with nine kills as the Red Flash hit .307 to the Scarlet Raiders' .000. Saint Francis had eight aces in the match, including Barba's three and Beatty's two. Saint Francis also had 12.5 total team blocks to Rutgers-Newark's three.
 
The Red Flash returns to action tomorrow night in another EIVA home match against NJIT at 6:00 p.m.