Jan. 10, 2007

Stats

Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst battled in its season opener against Nazareth Wednesday at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center, but fell short in game five 30-23, 30-22, 22-30, 25-30, 15-9. The Lakers are 0-1 overall and Nazareth is 1-0.

Nazareth started the match strong with two big games. The Lakers only led for the first two points of both game one and two before the Golden Flyers took control to win each game. In game one, Nazareth hit .367 as a team and in game two, it hit .364 as a team.

In game three and four, the Lakers battled to win each game to win 30-22 and 30-25. Mercyhurst hit .458 as a team in game three and .170 as a team in game four.

Although Mercyhurst held the momentum heading into game five, Nazareth jumped out quickly on the strength of a newly found blocking game. The Golden Flyers had three straight blocks, half of their total for the entire match, to take a 7-1 lead and the Lakers could never recover. Mercyhurst closed to within three points at 12-9, but Nazareth scored the final five points to wrap up the match.

Tim Wagner led the Lakers with 20 kills, three service aces, five digs, and two blocks. Dave Newman had two career highs on the night with 16 kills and nine blocks. Setter David Hatten also had a career high with 48 assists.

The Golden Flyers were led by Joe Petzoldt with 17 kills, two aces, and ten digs. Tom Maving had 13 kills, one ace, six digs, and two total blocks.

Up next for the Lakers is a four game road stretch beginning with Medaille on Tuesday, January 16th.