Lions Defeat Mounties 3-1 for 10th Win
CRESSON, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona men's volleyball team reached the 10-win mark on Sunday afternoon, when the Lions topped nearby rival Mount Aloysius College 3-1 in the ACW Center.
Penn State Altoona (10-7) took the first two sets by scores of 25-21 and 25-20, before Mount Aloysius (3-10) stayed alive with a 25-22 victory in the third. But the Lions rebounded in the fourth, pulling out a 25-17 win to defeat the Mounties in four sets.
While Penn State Altoona and Mount Aloysius are Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference opponents, Sunday's match was a non-conference contest. The Lions and Mounties will meet again later this season in AMCC play.
Caleb Fries (Altoona, PA/Altoona) scored a match-high 18 points for the Lions on 15 kills, four block assists, and one service ace. Landen Fisher (Altoona, PA/Altoona) had 14 points on nine kills, one ace, and a match-best seven total blocks, recording one solo and six assists.
Jack McKenna (Manahawkin, NJ/Southern Regional) added 12 points on 11 kills and an ace, and he also totaled a team-high nine digs. Owen Pratt (Pennsburg, PA/Upper Perkiomen) had nine points on four kills, a match-high three aces, two block assists, and one solo block, and Michael Hansen (Palatine, IL/William Fremd) chipped in six points on four kills, two block assists, and one ace.
Mason Grover (Penfield, NY/Penfield) had a team-best 29 assists to go along with eight digs, two block assists, and a kill.
Adam Chan (Framingham, MA/Framingham) recorded eight digs, and he also contributed six assists.
Penn State Altoona overcame a seven-point deficit in the first set, as Mount Aloysius started with a 12-5 lead before the Lions stormed back. The visitors used an 11-4 run to knot the score at 16-16, including getting duo blocks from Pratt and Fisher, and Fisher and Fries. A service ace from McKenna gave Penn State Altoona its first lead of the set, 18-17, and back-to-back blocks from the pairs of Pratt and Fisher, and Fries and Fisher, helped increase the Lions' lead to 22-19. Pratt's solo stuff got the Lions to set point, 24-19, and Penn State Altoona picked up the 25th point on a Mount Aloysius setting error that gave the visitors a 25-21 win to start the match.
The Lions carried their momentum into the second set, when they started with a 4-0 lead that was helped by a trio of Mountie attack errors and a Pratt ace. Later, Penn State Altoona ripped off four straight kills, getting two from Pratt and one apiece from Fries and McKenna to make it 10-3. Shortly thereafter, a Jacob Sandowski (Orland Park, IL/Carl Sandburg) ace gave the Lions an eight-point lead, 12-4. The Mounties went on a 6-0 run to close the gap to two points, 12-10, but Penn State Altoona answered with a 6-1 run that included kills from Fisher, McKenna, and Fries. Kills from McKenna, Hansen, Pratt, Fisher, and Fries helped get the Lions to set point, 24-19, and Fisher's kill wrapped up a 25-20 victory in set number two.
Kills from Fisher, Fries, and Hansen started the third set for Penn State Altoona, but Mount Aloysius pulled ahead and went up 17-12 midway through the game. A block from Fries and Fisher helped get the Lions back to within two points, 21-19, later in the set, and kills from Fisher and McKenna closed the gap to 23-22. But the Mounties got kills on the next two points to stay alive in the match by handing the Lions a 25-22 loss in the third.
The Lions got back on track in the fourth set and pulled out a win. Trailing 15-14, Penn State Altoona scored five points in a row on a Mounties service error, kills from Grover, Fries, and Fisher, and a Grover service ace to jump ahead, 19-15. A pair of kills by both McKenna and Fries, along with a Hansen and Fries combo block, made it 24-17, and Fisher put the finishing touches on the set with a service ace that closed it out at 25-17.
Penn State Altoona men's volleyball returns to action next weekend, when the Lions will travel to Rochester, N.Y., to play in the Nazareth University Tournament on Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8. The team starts the event on Friday, facing Baldwin Wallace University at 5 p.m.
