Jan. 25, 2008

Box Score

Huntingdon, Pa. - Despite a career-high 10 kills from Bryan Ritter and a dominant blocking performance by Dave Newman, the Mercyhurst men's volleyball team lost to NCAA Division III No. 3 Juniata in four games Friday evening. After losing the opening game 30-22, the Lakers bounced back to win game two 39-37 but lost the final two games 30-26, 30-28.

Ritter had his 10 kills on 15 swings with just one error for a .600 attack percentage. Newman tied for the team lead with 11 kills and added a career-high 11 blocks. He spearheaded a solid effort at the net for Mercyhurst, where the Lakers had 14 blocks to just 9.5 for Juniata but the Eagles still found a way to hit .313 for the match to get the win.

After Juniata controlled the opening stanza, Mercyhurst staved off three early game points in game two. Trailing 29-26, the Lakers got back-to-back kills from Newman and Jeff Hartman to make it 29-28, then tied the match on a Matt Fritz attack error. The Lakers stared at a fourth game point trailing 32-31, but Newman had another kill to tie the game. Tied at 37-37, Juniata had a ball-handling error and an attack error to even the match at one game apiece.

Game three was nip-and-tuck throughout. A Ritter kill got Mercyhurst within one point at 25-24 but Juniata scored three consecutive points and put the game away with a Zach Wanner kill for the 30-26 win.

Juniata went on a 7-2 run midway through game four to take a 21-16 lead but the Lakers battled back to tie the score at 24-24 on a Tim Wagner kill. Juniata called timeout and scored five of the next seven points to take a 29-26 lead. The Eagles then had a service error and an attack error to make it 29-28, but a Wanner kill closed out the match.

Wagner finished with 11 kills for Mercyhurst and Hartman added nine. David Hatten had 47 assists, eight blocks and six digs in a solid all-around performance.

Juniata improves to 2-0 on the season and Mercyhurst falls to 0-6. The Lakers will back in action Saturday at St. Francis (Pa.) at 1 p.m.