Men's Volleyball Wins Third Straight; Downs Thiel in Five

ERIE, Pa. – Nathan Steele (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) and Antonio Vazquez (San Juan, Puerto Rico/UHS) combined for 37 kills, while Colin Ingram (Hilliard, OH/Hilliard Darby) dished out a career-best 49 assists to lead Penn State Behrend past Thiel 3-2 in non-conference men's volleyball action on Wednesday night.

The Lions (6-2) have won their second straight five-set match of the season, defeating the Tomcats (4-6) for the first time in program history by scores of 13-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-20 and 15-13. Steele hit .444 on the night, knocking down a career-best 19 kills on 36 attempts. Vazquez had his best performance of the season, recording 18 kills and 14 digs for the double-double.

Michael Whitelock and Kyle Turkalj posted 15 kills apiece for Thiel, while Ian Phillips tallied a game-high 18 digs.

In similar fashion to the win over No. 9 NYU, Behrend fell in the first and third set but winning the second and fourth to send the match into decisive fifth set.  The Lions posted seven kills and just one error in the fifth to come out ahead by two points, extending their winning streak to three straight matches.

Ty Sheehan (Cochranton, PA/Cochranton) was in double-digit digs with 12 and Josh Oertly (Cochranton, PA/Cochranton) led with six blocks.

Behrend returns to action on Thursday, February 20 against D'Youville. The match begins at 7 p.m.