ERIE, Pa.  – The Penn State Behrend men's volleyball team relied on their strong presence at the net with 17 blocks and the hitting from freshman Ty Sheehan (Cochranton, PA/Cochranton) to defeat Hilbert 3-0 in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Wednesday night.

Sheehan hit 10-for-13 with no errors for a .769 hitting percentage, helping the Lions (6-15, 1-2) down the Hawks (26-24, 25-13, 25-10) and secure the No. 3 seed in the AMCC Tournament at the end of the month.  Evan Fullerton (Ambridge, PA/Ambridge) had his best performance for a three-set match with 28 assists on 33 kills.

For Hilbert (6-15), Adam Weaver recorded a team-best 11 kills out of 22 on the night while Ryan Ratajczak had 10 digs.

The Hawks kept themselves in the first set, making it come down to the final two points. With the game tied 15 times, Hilbert took its biggest lead at 18-16 after a kill from Weaver to force a Behrend timeout. The Lions went on a 7-2 run to go ahead 23-20. The Hawks used two kills from Weaver and another from Frederick Sickau to knot the game at 24-all. Sheehan made it set point and a Hilbert attacked error gave Behrend a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Lions had eight kills and six blocks in the second set for 14 points, combined with seven attack errors by the Hawks made it an easy 25-13 win for a 2-0 edge.

The final set looked much like the second with Behrend forcing 10 Hilbert errors with the defense only allowing 10 points for the final 25-10 victory. Sheehan served six points in the set and added three kills.

Grant Kocher (McMurray, PA/Peters Township) led with five blocks and tallied six kills, while Nate Steele (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) had nine kills, seven digs and three blocks for an all-around solid effort.

The Lions return to action tomorrow at Medaille. Match begins at 7 p.m.