ERIE, Pa. -- The Siena Heights Men's Volleyball team swept Penn State- Behrend (Pa.) and Thiel (Pa.), in the final regular games of the season, to move to 18-5 on the season. In match one Siena won 25-23, 26-24 and 27-25. When facing off against Thiel set scores were 25-14, 25- 17, 28-26.
GAME ONE: Siena Heights 25, Penn State- Behrend 23
The Saints were back and forth throughout the first set. The set was tied at 14 and again at 22. Kyle Browne had the final slam to give the Saints a 1-0 advantage going into the second set.
GAME TWO: Siena Heights 26, Penn State- Behrend 24
The Saints jumped out to an early 7-3 lead before allowing Penn State back into the game tying it at 10. While the Saints never lost the lead the game was tied at 24. Browne again had the set winning slam to give Siena the 26-24 lead.
GAME THREE: Siena Heights 27, Penn State- Behrend 25
The Saints again maintained the lead through the beginning stages of the match. The Saints were up by 6 before Penn State- Behrend crept back into the game with the Saints still up 23-20. SHU held on to win 27- 25
Leading the Saints (19-5) with 19 kills, and 8 digs was Browne, followed by Ryan Hafner with 10 kills and 10 digs. Keegan Crawford had 36 assists and 11 digs, Jack Pranckus had 14 digs. Cory Grumbach and Alex Garavalia each added 7 digs.
On the other side of the net Dillon Hildebrand led Penn State- Behrend with 10 kills and 6 digs. Tyler Herrmann added 9 kills as 8 digs. Robert McMaster had 13 digs, while Anthony Sprentz and Josh Matthews added 11 digs, respectively.
GAME ONE: Siena Heights 25, Thiel 14
The Saints made light work of Thiel in the first set moving to a quick 20-6 advantage before slowly allowing Thiel to sneak back into the game. The Saints held on 25-14.
GAME TWO: Siena Heights 25, Thiel 17
In the second match SHU always held the lead, however it was much more marginal before they went up 7 and eventually finishing off up 25-17.
GAME THREE: Siena Heights 28, Thiel 26
It looked like set three was going to be a similar story for the Saints until they found themselves down 7-14. They were able to slowly chip away and found themselves only down 2 with the score at 16- 18. It remained back and forth until the very end when Siena Heights were able to move ahead and hold on for the win.
Leading the Saints were Ryan Hafner with 9 kills and 8 digs while Alex Garavalia also added 9 kills and 3 digs respectively. Jack Pranckus had 16 digs, while Keegan Crawford added 10 for the Saints.
Thiel was led by Jacob DeRue with 10 kills and 5 digs, Mitchell Patterson added 8 kills and 6 digs while Jacob Burkley tacked on 7 kills and 5 digs respectively.
The Saints will take the court again when they face off in post season play against Benedictine University at Mesa in the 2018 NAIA Independents Men's Volleyball Qualifying Tournament at Lourdes (Sylvania, Ohio) at 4 p.m. on April 6.