LATROBE, Pa. (Jan. 30) – The Saint Vincent men's volleyball team dropped a pair of 3-0 decisions to visiting Elizabethtown College in a non-conference Sunday matinee doubleheader in the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
The Bearcats dropped the first match by scores of 25-8, 25-16 and 25-13, before falling in the second match by set scores of 25-21, 25-17 and 25-15.
Match 1: Elizabethtown 3, Saint Vincent 0
Matthew Minkin paced Saint Vincent with five kills in the day's opener, while
Ethan Kammerer added four and
Anthony Ditonto two. Ditonto also led SVC with two blocks, while
Matthew Klasnic and
Matthew Furrer shared the team lead with eight digs apiece. Furrer also dished out a team-leading 10 assists.
SVC took the first two points of set number one, with an Elizabethtown service error and a kill from
Andrew Cassidy. The Blue Jays then awoke in a big way, rattling off 10 of the next 11 points to open up a 10-3 lead. Elizabethtown continued to add to its lead and SVC was unable to recover, with the Blue Jays taking the 25-8 set victory.
The second set began in a back-and-forth fashion, as the teams shared three ties and three lead changes in the opening stages. After a block from Ditonto made the score 5-4, the Blue Jays responded with another lengthy run to take a 12-5 lead. The Bearcats chipped away at the deficit, closing to within 14-10 on a kill from Kammerer, but the Blue Jays would use a 6-2 run to take a 20-12 lead. SVC pulled to within 23-16 late, but the Blue Jays claimed the final two points to take a 2-0 match lead.
The teams traded points in the opening stages of the third set, before the Blue Jays put together a 10-5 run to open up a 14-7 advantage. A Blue Jay attack error followed by a Kammerer kill pulled SVC to within 15-9, but Elizabethtown scored 10 of the final 15 points to take the set, 25-13, and the match, 3-0.
Match 2: Elizabethtown 3, Saint Vincent 0
The Bearcats were strong out of the gates to open the day's second match, quickly jumping out to a 4-1 lead on two Blue Jay errors and kills from Minkin and
Andrew Cassidy. The Saint Vincent lead would stretch to 7-2 and 10-5, with Cassidy adding two more kills, but Elizabethtown would then steal the momentum by scoring seven of the next nine points to forge a 12-12 tie. The Blue Jays would then take their first lead of the set, 14-13, but the Bearcats answered right back, tying it at 18-all on a Minkin spike before taking a 20-19 lead on a Blue Jay setting error. It was SVC's last lead of the set, however, as Elizabethtown closed out the set by scoring six of the final seven points to take a 25-21 win.
Saint Vincent again got off to a strong start in the second set, jumping out to a 7-4 lead highlighted by a pair of Cassidy kills and an ace from Kammerer. The Blue Jays countered to tie the set at 9-9 and then opened up a 14-12 lead, but the Bearcats battled back to tie it at 15-all on an ace from Ditonto. As was the case in the previous set, however, Elizabethtown heated up down the stretch, ending the set on a 10-2 run to take it by a 25-17 score.
Elizabethtown kept the momentum as the third set began, scoring the first three points before eventually opening up a 12-3 lead. The Bearcats battled back with a 5-1 run to pull to within five, 13-8, on a kill from Minkin, but they would get no closer, as the Blue Jays upped their lead over the remainder of the match to close out a 25-15 win and take their second match of the day.
Minkin again led the Bearcats with seven kills, while Cassidy and Kammerer put down five apiece. Franey led both sides with four blocks, with Cassidy and Minkin adding two apiece, while Klasnic led the defense with 11 digs. Furrer handed out 20 assists.
The Bearcats will how have more than a week layoff before returning to action on Tuesday, Feb. 8, when they travel to West Virginia to take on Division-II Alderson Broaddus in another non-conference tune-up.
