Jan. 28, 2011

Box Score

Box Score in PDF Format

LORETTO, Pa. - Lewis men's volleyball needed 39 points to defeat St. Francis (Pa.) in the third set on Friday evening. Lewis would combine the marathon set victory with wins in the second and fourth sets to defeat the Red Flash 3-1 (26-28, 25-19, 39-37, 25-18). The match featured 48 ties and 17 lead changes. The third set alone had 31 ties and 10 lead changes.

Last season the Flyers won an opening set against Juniata 44-42 when the games were played up to 30 points. On Friday Lewis went the same 14 extra points to defeat St. Francis 39-37. Lewis had 10 set points in the game while St. Francis had six. Lewis finally won the game on a kill by sophomore Ian Karbiener (Orlando, Fla./Olympia) for point 39. The Flyers struggled from the service line in the third set, committing three of their 12 service errors in the set on set points.

St. Francis started the fourth set with an 8-3 lead before Lewis rushed back to tie it up at 11. Lewis put the Red Flash away with a 5-0 run after St. Francis tied the game at 17.

Lewis trailed 24-19 in the opening set but rallied to tie it by scoring five straight points. St. Francis stopped the run to earn another set point at 26-25, before a kill by sophomore Jay Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) tied it at 26. Karbiener delivered a kill to give Lewis set point at 26-25 but St. Francis scored the next three points to take the stanza. St. Francis needed seven total set points before winning the set.

While Lewis didn't win the opening set, they took the momentum into second frame and easily won the set. The difference came when Lewis finished on a 7-2 run.

St. Francis stayed in the match due to Lewis service errors. Lewis out-hit St. Francis .360 to .163 and out-blocked St. Francis 14.0 to 8.0 but gave the Red Flash 29 points on service errors.

"Unfortunately we had too many service errors tonight but the guys showed resiliency rallying in a couple games and playing over it," head coach Dan Friend said.

Junior Matt Gallik (Evergreen Park, Ill./Brother Rice) had 11 blocks (one solo) and 10 kills. It's the second time Gallik has recorded a kill-block double-double in his career. He recoded 15 kills and 12 blocks against UC-San Diego on March 13 last season.

Gallik was one of four Flyers with double-digit kills. Karbiener had 19 with a .406 attack percentage. Petty and senior Brian Muesenfechter (St. Louis, Mo./Christian Brothers) each had 13 kills.

"We did some really nice things offensively tonight," Friend said. "Matt and Ian put up some impressive numbers."

Freshman BJ Boldog (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) totaled 61 assists.

St. Francis falls to 2-3. Lewis improves to 6-0. The Flyers are at No. 9 Penn State on Saturday. First serve is slated for 6 p.m. CT.