Tigers Drop First Match of the Season to #11 St. John Fisher

Pittsford, NY-Wittenberg Men's Volleyball travled to Rochester for a weekend tournement after their undefeated 3-0 start to begin the season. For their first match of the weekend, they took on St. John Fisher, who currently ranks number 11 in the country. After a close first set, St. John Fisher started to run away with the match, winning 3-0, by scores of 29-27, 25-16 and 25-18. Wittenberg's record is now 3-1, while St. John Fisher stays undefeated with a 5-0 record.

In the first set, Wittenberg faced an early deficit and was fighting to stay close throughout the set. Down 14-20 at one point, Matthew Gerardi (New Carlisle, OH / Tecumseh) went on a run with his serve and the Tigers won five straight points and eventually took the score to 23-22. By the time either one of the teams was able to take a two point lead and win the set St. John Fisher took the first set. 27-29.

The Tigers came out in the second set winning the first two points and seemed to be playing with the samw fire they were in the first set. For the remainder of the set  Wittenberg was outscored almost two oints for every one they were able to score and quickly were down 0-2 after St. John Fisher overwhelmingly winning the second set 16-25.

St. John Fisher started the third set on a 5-0 run and Wittenberg ws unable to recover from that deficit. They brough it back to within one at 9-10 before they fell back to another five point deficit at 9-14. From there, St. John Fisher kept the lead steady until completing the sweep by taking the final set 18-25.

Team Leaders

• Eli Halverson (Hamilton, OH / Badin) and Michael Yurk (Indianapolis, IN / Bishop Chatard) paced the team in kills with five each
• Sam Richardson (Akron, OH / Walsh Jesuit) and Gavin Hagerty (Fishers, IN / Fishers) led the team in assists with eight apiece on the night
• Hagerty also took the lead in digs with five and Jake Downs (Cincinnati, OH / Milford) followed him up with four of his own
• Yurk and Halverson each had one solo block to lead the team and Adam Blair (West Chester, OH / Lakota West) led in total blocks with three on the night.

Team Comparison

• Wittenberg came away with the lead in digs, by a count of 18-14
• The Tigers also had more total blocks, 10-7

The Tigers will play again on Saturday, January 18, where they will take on Buffalo State at 11:00 AM and Penn State-Behrend at 1:00 to conclude their weekend in Pittsford.