March 27, 2008

Box Score

Erie, Pa. - Just one night after the Mercyhurst men's volleyball team came from behind to defeat Quincy in five games, the Hawks turned the tables and did the same. The Lakers won two of the first three games but eventually lost to Quincy in five 22-30, 30-24, 22-30, 33-31, 15-11 Thursday.

Jonathan Gurr had a career-high 22 kills, Tim Wagner added 17 and Dave Newman finished with 15 for Mercyhurst, but Quincy's Peter Coley had a game-high 25 kills to carry the Hawks to the win. He had 11 kills in a critical game four victory in which the Lakers were unable to pull out the victory despite hitting a match-high .419 in the game.

Junior setter David Hatten handed out a career-high 61 assists, shattering his previous best of 49.

Mercyhurst cruised to identical 30-22 victories in games one and three before a back-and-forth fourth game. Neither team led by more than three points until the Lakers strung together four straight points on a pair of Wagner kills to take a 20-16 lead.

Still trailing 22-18, Quincy scored four in a row to tie the game and the teams exchanged points until the score was tied at 31-31. Coley strung together back-to-back kills as Quincy tied the match.

Mercyhurst led briefly in game five but Quincy scored three straight to take a 10-6 lead before Laker head coach Ryan Patton called a timeout to regroup. Jeff Hartman recorded his 10th kill of the match on the next point to close the deficit to three but the Lakers were unable to get any closer before Coley's 25th kill of the match finished the contest.

Newman, who ranks in the top 15 in the country in attack percentage, hit .565 for the match and added seven blocks. Hatten had nine blocks and Hartman added a game-high 12 digs. The Lakers hit .326 for the match while Quincy had a .215 attack percentage.

Quincy improves to 18-22 overall and 1-9 in MIVA play. The Lakers are also 1-9 in the MIVA and 5-16 overall. Mercyhurst closes out its home schedule by hosting St. Francis (Pa.) Tuesday at 7 p.m.