LORETTO, Pa. (March 27, 2015) -- The Saint Francis U men's volleyball team dropped a close Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match 3-1 to the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders Friday night. Saint Francis grabbed an early 1-0 lead before dropping three sets to the Highlanders who claimed their first EIVA conference win.
 
The Red Flash set the tone early winning the first set 25-21, while attacking the ball at a deadly .483 clip. Junior Mike Marshman (Glenmont, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) led the Flash attack hitting the ball at a perfect 1.000 clip. Marshman collected six kills. Daniel Ford (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) mirrored Marshman's performance with a perfect hitting percentage of his own off three kills. Ford also chipped in 12 assists.
 
The Highlanders played the second set with a chip on their shoulder. NJIT failed to dally around downing the Red Flash 25-15. SFU never led the second set.
 
Saint Francis grabbed an early 3-0 lead on the Highlanders in the third set before play leveled out. The Highlanders held a late 24-19 third set lead with SFU freshman Shaughn McDonald (Coraopolis, Pa./Our Lady of Sacred Heart) serving. McDonald righted the ship between back-to-back NJIT timeouts leading the Frankies on a 5-0 run to tie up the set 24-24. Both teams exchanged points before NJIT bettered the Flash 27-25.
 
NJIT had the final say in the fourth set earning a 25-22 win.
 
Marshman led the Flash with 14 kills and an impressive .545 hitting percentage. Ford stated four kills and 27 assists, while Adam Kniffen (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) came off the bench to record two kills and 10 assists. Both Kniffen and Ford attacked the ball at a perfect 1.000 clip.

Saint Francis slips to 2-3 in EIVA play.
 
Tomorrows game against Princeton will tip off at 4:30 p.m. instead of the original 4 p.m. slated game time.