ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's volleyball team split a pair of United Volleyball Conference (UVC) matches, defeating Bard 3-0 and falling to No. 10 Vassar 3-1 on Saturday afternoon in the Junker Center.
Trenton Munk (Baden, PA/Ambridge) had a .824 attack percentage with 14 kills on 17 attempts to help the Lions (3-7, 1-1 UVC) post a 25-17, 25-17, 25-17 three-set decision over the Raptors (1-12, 0-4 UVC). In the opener, Behrend took the Brewers to four sets and were two points away from a fifth set falling 25-13, 25-16, 27-25 and 25-23. Tyler Herrmann (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) had a season-high 17 kills and eight digs in the first match. Herrmann finished with 30 kills and 16 digs on the day.
The Lions hit .393 and committed a season-low eight errors against Bard to earn their first conference win of the season and third overall.
After a Behrend timeout with the scored tied at 12-all, the Lions used a 7-1 run to pull away from the Raptors in the first set. Herrmann tallied two kills and Munk added another for a 19-13 lead. Behrend took advantage of four errors down the stretch combined with two kills from Munk for a 25-17 victory.
The Lions took control of the second set, darting out to a 19-12 advantage. Herrmann and Munk registered six kills apiece, closing out the set with their final kills for points 24 and 25 to help Behrend take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Lions saved their best set for last, only committing two errors and hitting .520 for a 25-17 win.
Against Vassar, Behrend dropped the first two sets before breaking the third set that had 14 ties with two blocks to win in extra points. The fourth set was just as close as the third, but the Brewers got four kills in their final points for a 25-23 victory.
In the third, the two teams went point for point until the end. Vassar had match point at 25-24 off a kill from Brian Manley. Manley then served into the net to knot the score for the 14th time at 25-all. Munk and Anthony Sprentz (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) tallied the first block on a Matthew Knigge attack attempt and Munk paired up with Eric Theiss (Plum, PA/Plum) on the second for a 27-25 win.
Only two points separated Vassar and Behrend for most of the fourth set. Once again, tied at 22-all Knigge knocked down a kill and Munk followed with one of his own, before George Diehl and Reno Kriz each posted a kill to nip a fifth set at 25-23.
Sprentz averaged 9.57 assists per set for 67 on the day. Theiss finished with 18 digs and 13 kills, while Robert McMaster (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) tallied 15 digs over two matches.
Behrend returns to action on Wednesday against Elmira. Match begins at 7 p.m.