No. 16 Flyers Fall To No. 6 Penn State In Five Set Thriller

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…