Men's Volleyball Falls Twice at Altoona

ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches on the road, falling to Penn State Altoona 3-0 and Southern Virginia 3-2 on Saturday afternoon at Alder Gym in Altoona, Pa.

The Altoona Lions picked up their second win against the Lions (3-7, 2-3 AMCC) this season with a 25-17, 25-20 and 28-26 decision in the first match. In the nightcap, the Knights (13-4) rallied back from two games down to win (17-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-19, 15-12).

Against Southern Virginia, three players had double-digit kills led by Trenton Munk (Baden, PA/Baden) with 11 on 17 attempts for a . 588 hitting percentage. Dillon Hildebrand (Red Lion, PA/Red Lion) added 10 kills to his 12 from the first match.

Anthony Sprentz (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) is now 24 assists away from reaching 1,000 in his short career after recording 30 helpers on the day.

Calvin Nowicki (Eden, NY/Eden) tallied 23 assists and 11 digs to lead Behrend against Altoona.

In the first set of the first match, Brian Sheddy broke open a 7-6 lead with four straight serves help Altoona build a six-point advantage that stayed for the remainder of set for a 25-17 win.

Behrend led in the second set 12-11 until four kills and an ace later Altoona took the lead for good at 21-15. The Altoona Lions went ahead 2-0 in the match after two kills from Arentz and one from Sheddy for the win at 25-20.

Playing to stay in the match, Behrend started on a 3-0 run but it would not take long for Altoona to tie it at 4-all. The set was tied seven times until Behrend took a two-point lead that grew to four at set point. Altoona tallied three kills to even it at 24-all. After a Behrend timeout, the Lions had a chance to win on two more occasions but two more kills and an attack error secured the match for Altoona.

Against the Knights, the Lions hit .438 in the first set to win 25-17 and then hit .333 in the second with 10 kills at 25-15 for a two-set lead. Southern Virginia stayed in the match with a 25-22 third-set victory, before forcing a fifth set with a 25-19 win after a delay due to a power outage.

In the decisive set, Behrend went on a 4-1 spurt for a 10-7 lead behind a kill from Munk and two attack errors from the Knights. Southern Virginia used a small run of its own to take a one-point lead at 11-10 and a kill from Cody Geis (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) evened it at 11-all.

From there, the Knights won the next three points on a kills, block and an error for match point. A service error made it 14-12 and Alma Ray knocked in the final kill at 15-12.

Hildebrand recorded 13 digs and Nowicki dished out 19 assists with eight digs against Southern Virginia.

The Lions return to action on tomorrow at Wilson. Match time is 1 p.m.