Thiel Sweeps Men's Volleyball

Thiel Sweeps Men's Volleyball

GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's volleyball team dropped a three-set match to Thiel (25-17, 25-22, 26-24) in non-conference action on a cold Thursday night.

Michael Whitelock posted a 73.3 hitting percentage with 12 kills on 15 attempts with one error while adding five blocks to help the Tomcats (7-7) even their record on the season.

For the Lions (5-5), Ty Sheehan (Cochranton, PA/Cochranton) tallied 10 kills, eight digs and four blocks. Mitch Farabaugh (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) finished with 24 assists, seven digs, five kills and three blocks.

Thiel held a small 12-11 edge in the first set, before taking a six-point lead behind two kills from Whitelock and an ace from Regan Hess. The Tomcats closed out the set with three straight points on Behrend attack errors for a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Lions kept the second set within three points towards the end of the game and would eventually fall by three, 25-22. Back-to-back errors put Behrend within two points at 23-21. A Trenton Munk (Bade, PA/Ambridge) kill and two errors by the Lions gave Thiel the set win.

In a fighting position to keep the match alive, Behrend did just that in the third set. The Tomcats held onto the lead almost all of the set but the Lions almost forced a fourth set. Thiel committed eight attack errors in the set yet managed to sweep Behrend thanks to a final kill from Whitelock for a 26-24 set-three victory.

Libero Derek Polishen (Plum, PA/Plum) had double-digit digs with 11 for the Lions.

Behrend returns to action on Thursday against Medaille. Match begins at 7 p.m.