Red Flash Outhit and Outblock Violets in 3-0 Sweep at DeGol Arena
LORETTO, Pa. – New York University didn’t have an answer for junior opposite Jordan Varee (Conneautville, Pa. / Conneaut Valley) as the third-year starter hit .682 in leading the Saint Francis men’s volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over the Violets on Friday night at DeGol Arena.
Varee had 16 kills and just one error on 22 swings to go with five digs and four blocks in the 30-20, 30-14, 30-25. Junior Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel) added 10 kills, two aces, four digs and four blocks, senior Shane Conley (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) dished out 31 assists, and junior Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, N.Y. / Orchard Park) had four kills, two aces and eight blocks. The Red Flash hit .386 and out-blocked the Violets 12.5 to 5.0.
SFU improved to 2-0 with the victory, and will try to make it three straight when it hosts Ball State at 7 p.m. next Saturday, January 24th, at DeGol Arena.
The Red Flash jumped out with a purpose in Set 1 against the Violets. They took the first serve and went dig, set and kill by Varee for a 1-0 lead. NYU made a pair of errors to make it 3-0, and SFU stretched that lead to 8-1 behind a couple more errors and two big blocks. The Red Flash were never in danger of relinquishing the lead, and clinched with a Fortney kill off the block to make it 30-20. Saint Francis hit a scorching .692 in the set and out-blocked the Violets 4.5 to 1.0. Rivett hit 1.000 in the game with four kills and added two blocks, Varee hit .800 with four kills and five swings, and Freyer had two aces and three blocks. Three players had a pair of kills for the Violets.
The second didn’t start as easy for Saint Francis as NYU came out swinging to trade points with the Red Flash. But tied at 4-4, the Red Flash won two straight serves to spark a 7-2 run that forced the Violets into a timeout with SFU leading 11-6. The run was capped by a Fortney kill off a blocker and a big block by Varee and Freyer. Varee and Freyer came out of the timeout with another block, and Freyer and Rivett followed with another to make it 13-6 and spark another 9-2 run. Three straight errors forced NYU into another timeout and Rivett came out of it with an ace to make it 20-8, which made it a 16-4 run for the Flash. SFU never looked back in taking the set 30-14 to take a 2-0 lead in the match. The Red Flash hit .348 in the set and had 7.0 blocks to NYU’s 1.0.
NYU put up its best fight in the third set, trading points through the first 12 serves to make it 6-6. A Rivett kill and a hitting error put the Red Flash up 8-6, but the Violets continued to hang tough, not letting Saint Francis gain more than a two-point lead. Back-to-back ball handling errors by the Flash forced a 10-10 tie. The set was against tied at 11, 12 and 13 before the Red Flash took advantage of two errors and a Fortney ace to take their biggest lead so far at 16-13. However, NYU had back-to-back kills to pull within one again at 16-15. Rivett made it 18-16 with another kill, but a service error and a hitting error tied the set again at 18-18 and the Red Flash called a timeout. The break worked as Saint Francis came out with a 3-0 run behind a Varee kill, a Violets set error, and a block by Fortney and Freyer to make it 21-18, forcing NYU into a timeout of its own. The Violets pulled to within 22-21, but SFU cruised the rest of the way to clinch 30-25 for the 3-0 sweep on a hitting error by NYU.