BOX SCORE Flash Points:
- SFU Men's Volleyball fell 3-0 against No. 6 UC Irvine on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena.
- The Red Flash dropped set scores of 25-23, 25-17 and 25-15.
- SFU is now 8-12 this season.
- Senior Adam Kniffen (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) tallied a career-high 12 kills.
LORETTO, Pa. – The Saint Francis Men's Volleyball team fell 3-0 against No. 6 UC Irvine on Wednesday night at DeGol Arena. SFU dropped three sets, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-15. The Red Flash is now 8-12 overall, while the Anteaters improved to 12-6.
Senior
Adam Kniffen (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) led the Red Flash with a career-high 12 kills and a team-high six digs. Junior
Stephen Braswell (Manchester, Pa./Northeastern) had four kills, with seniors
Nick Bennett (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) and
Keith Kegerreis (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg) each adding three. Senior
Daniel Ford (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) led SFU with 15 assists and junior
Brandon Buck (Baden, Pa./Ambridge) had an ace.
UC Irvine was led by senior Thomas Hodges' 12 kills. Senior Tamir Hershko had nine kills, while freshman Scott Stadick had six kills. Senior Michael Saeta had a team-high 31 assists to go with five kills and two aces, while senior Dillon Hoffman had a team-high seven digs. Stadick also had two solo blocks and assisted on four others.
The Anteaters took the first set, 25-23, behind four kills from Matthew Younggren. SFU was led by Kniffen's four kills.
After a service error by Stadick tied the set at 6-6, the Anteaters gained separation with four straight points, off two kills by Younggren, one by Hershko and an ace by Hodges.
A kill by Hodges helped UC Irvine to its largest lead of the set, 18-12, but SFU scored six of the next nine points to cut the deficit to three, 21-18. The Red Flash got kills from Kniffen, Bennett, Ford and Braswell during the run. UCI extended its lead back to five, 23-18, but kills by Buck and Kniffen brought SFU within one, 24-23, before an attack error ended the set.
UC Irvine claimed the second set, 25-17. Hodges led the Anteaters with five kills in the set, with Koubi adding four. Saeta had two aces. Braswell and Kniffen each had two kills, while Buck had an ace.
The Red Flash scored seven of the first 11 points of the set, including two kills by Braswell and one by Kniffen. However, UC Irvine answered with an 8-0 run to take a 12-7 lead. Hershko had two kills during the run, with one each by Hodges and Stadick and an ace by Younggren.
A kill by Braswell and an attack error by Koubi brought SFU back within three, 12-9, but the Anteaters tallied 10 of the next 12 points to push its lead to 22-11. Hodges had three kills during the UCI run, with Koubi and Stadick each adding one. Saeta landed two aces, with Tucker Pikula contributing one.
Two attack errors and two service errors, as well as a kill by Kegerreis and an ace by Buck, allowed SFU to cut the deficit to 24-17, but a service error closed out the set.
The Anteaters closed out the match with a 25-15 win in the third set. Hodges led UCI with five kills, with Hershko adding four. Kniffen led the Red Flash with six kills and Braswell had one.
UC Irvine scored the first four points of the set, including kills by Hershko, Hodges and Stadick and extended its lead to five, 8-3, on a kill by Hodges. The Red Flash scored five of the next seven points to close within two, 10-8, behind a kill by Kniffen, two attack errors and two service errors. The Anteaters led by four or five for the next few points before five straight points extended their lead to 23-14. Two errors by SFU helped UCI to close out the set win.
The Red Flash returns to action on Saturday, March 18 when it hosts California Baptist at 4 p.m. SFU defeated CBU, 3-0, on January 6.
