Men's Volleyball Falls Twice at UVC Crossover

NEW PALTZ, NY – The Penn State Behrend men's volleyball team fell short in a pair of matches against nationally-ranked opponents at the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Crossover weekend held at SUNY New Paltz.

The sixth-ranked Stevens were able to take the Lions (8-10, 2-7 UVC) to four games. They won the first two sets 25-19 before dropping the third set to Behrend, 26-24. Stevens then took the fourth, 25-20. In the second match, seventh-ranked SUNY New Paltz just got by the Lions 3-0 (25-18, 26-24, 27-25) with the final two games going extra points.

Against Stevens, Ty Sheehan (Cochranton, PA/Cochranton) and Grant Kocher (McMurray, PA/Peters Township) had double-digit kills with 14 and 16, respectively.  Sheehan also added a team-best nine digs. Evan Fullerton (Ambridge, PA/Ambridge) dished out 35 assists.

Stevens hit .415 for the match and were led by David Evans with 15 kills and three aces.

After SUNY New Paltz won the first game 25-18, only a two-point lead separated the two teams in the second game. Behrend broke a 22-all tie with a kill by Kocher and an ace by Colin Ingram (Hilliard, OH/Hilliard Darby) to give the Lions game point. SUNY New Paltz called a timeout and won the next four points to win, 26-24.

In the third game, Behrend rallied back from a 20-15 deficit to take the lead at 24-23 on a kill by Kocher. Similar to the second game, SUNY New Paltz was able to capture the final points of the game on kills by Brian Smith for a 27-25 victory.

Nathan Steele (Cranberry Township, PA/Seneca Valley) hit .360 in the second match with 10 kills on 25 attempts. Fullerton added 17 assists to his first game total to go with nine digs.  Kocher added nine kills and Sheehan added eight.

The Lions return to action tomorrow against SUNYIT. The match begins at 1 p.m.