UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn. – The No. 16 Lewis University men's volleyball team fell to No. 6 Penn State 3-2 Saturday (Jan. 6) at Rec Hall. Four of the five sets were determined by three points or less.
 
TEAM RECORDS
Lewis 1-1 | Penn State 2-0
 
LEWIS LEADERS
Kills: Max Roquet (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) (14), Christian Prayer (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) (11), Daniel Haber (Remsenburg, NY/Westhampton Beach) (10)
Digs: Tyler Morgan (Dike, Iowa/Dike-New Hartford) (8), Prayer (7), Nico Paula (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley Preparatory School) (7)
Assists: Morgan (47)
Blocks: Roquet (6)
 
SET BREAKDOWN
Set 1: Penn State 25, Lewis 18
Lewis scored the first two points of the match on kills from Prayer and Roquet. The Nittany Lions used back-to-back Lewis errors to pull ahead 4-3.
 
The two teams traded points for much of the next part of the match until Penn State slowly built its lead to 14-10. Three straight Flyer points cut the deficit back to one at 14-13.
 
Penn State took the next five points to build an 18-13 advantage. Lewis was unable to get the deficit closer than three points the rest of the set.
 
Set 2: Lewis 25, Penn State 22
The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 4-2 lead before three straight Flyer points gave them their first lead of the set as Haber and Prayer each had kills. Lewis steadily built its lead to 15-11 off kills from Haber and Roquet to force a Penn State timeout.
 
A Penn State error pushed the advantage to 16-11. After a Nittany Lion point, Lewis came back with two more on a kill by Roquet and an error for an 18-12 advantage.
 
The Nittany Lions sliced the lead to a point at 22-21, forcing a Lewis timeout. A Haber kill stopped the run out of the time out. Penn State came back with a kill before Lewis scored the final two points of the game on a kill by Michael Sack (Oak Lawn, Ill./St. Laurence) and a block by Roquet.
 
Set 3: Penn State 29, Lewis 27
It was a close set throughout as the Flyers held a 10-8 lead following a Roquet kill. Penn State scored the next three points to take the lead. The Flyers answered back with three straight points a few serves later to take a 16-14 lead.
 
The Nittany Lions answered with three straight points to regain the lead. Prayer answered with a kill to even the score and an error gave Lewis the lead back at 18-17. The two teams traded points for the remainder of the set until back-to-back points from the Flyers gave them a 25-24 advantage.
 
Penn State scored the next two points to retake the lead. The two teams traded points until the Nittany Lions used an error and an ace to win the set.
 
Set 4: Lewis 31, Penn State 29
Penn State carried the momentum into the fourth set and built leads of 8-3 and 11-5. A Morgan kill got the Flyers back on track and started a four-point run to make it 11-9.
 
The Flyers completed the comeback and took the lead with three straight points at 17-15 after an ace by Nathan DeGraaf (Cranberry Township, Penn./Seneca Valley HS) and a kill from Roquet.
 
A kill by DeGraaf gave the Flyers another match point at 25-24, but again the Nittany Lions responded with the next two points to get a match point. A Roquet kill evened the score and the two teams traded points until Lewis scored the final three on the match thanks to a pair of kills from Roquet.
 
Set 5: Penn State 15, Lewis 13
Penn State used three straight points to open a 6-3 advantage. The Nittany Lions moved the lead to 10-6 before Lewis scored five of the next six points to tie the set at 11-11 as Syver Drolsum (Vikersund, Norway/Toppvolley Norge) had three kills in the rally.
 
The Nittany Lions came back with three of the next four points to take a 14-12 lead. A DeGraff kill cut the deficit back to one before a Penn State kill ended the match.
 
UP NEXT
The Flyers open their home schedule Thursday (Jan. 11) as UCLA visits Neil Carey Arena.