ALTOONA, PA – The Medaille College Men's Volleyball team traveled to Penn State Altoona on Tuesday evening, taking on the Lions in the Opening Round of the NEAC playoffs. The Mavericks started well and gave it all they had; however, Penn State Altoona was just too much, ending Medaille's season 3-0.

The tone of the match was set early on with both sides putting on a show in the first game. Penn State Altoona jumped out to an early 5-1 lead but the Mavericks battled right back. A 7-4 run sparked by kills from four different Mavericks cut the deficit to just one.

The Mavs earned their first lead of the set when kills by Steven Ebert (Center Moriches, NY, Center Moriches), Brazil Thompson (Buffalo, NY, Cheektowaga), and Matt Dickerson (Lockport, NY, Starpoint) sparked a 5-2 run to give Medaille a 13-12 edge. The back-and-forth continued through the remainder of the set, setting up for a thrilling finish.

That thrilling finish went in favor of the Mavericks with kills by Thompson and Dickerson igniting a 4-1 run to close things out for the Mavs, as they took set one 25-22.

Set two was just as exciting. The set started with each team making multiple runs on each other. The Mavericks rattled off three points in a row, while the Lions answered with three straight of their own. That pattern continued until the halfway mark when all of the sudden the Lions and Mavs started trading points.

The only exception was a spot of two points in a row by Medaille to cut the lead to 21-20, which was as close as the Mavs would come. This time the back-and-forth favored the Lions as they tied things up at one with a 25-23 victory.

Set three was the all-important set to see which side would earn the 2-1 advantage. Once again both sides refused to concede. The third set saw nine ties and four lead changes. The fourth and final lead change happened on a Penn State Altoona kill to make it 21-20 late, and the Lions rode that momentum all the way to a 25-22 win.

The fourth and final set was defined by one last run that helped send Penn State Altoona to Championship Weekend, with the Lions hitting Medaille with an 8-2 run that the Mavericks just couldn't come back from.

Seven different Mavericks earned at least two kills offensively with seniors Ebert (13) and Sam Bloomberg (Lake Worth, FL, Park Vista) (12) leading the way. ECAC North Player of the Week Matt Dempsey (Clarence, NY, Clarence) dished out 42 assists and had 10 digs for his seventh double-double of the year, while Ebert and freshman Jake Siwy (West Seneca, NY, West Seneca West) both paced Medaille with 11 digs each.

The loss ends Medaille's season at 7-22 overall as they qualified for the NEAC Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons.