March 26, 2008

Box Score

Erie, Pa. - David Hatten came up one block shy of a triple-double and Dave Newman added 19 blocks as Mercyhurst battled from behind to defeat Quincy 24-30, 30-26, 29-31, 30-24, 15-9 Wednesday at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. The victory was Mercyhurst's first conference win in nine tries this year and moved the Lakers past Quincy and into sixth place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA).

Mercyhurst lost two of the first three games and Quincy looked like it would take game four, holding a 15-9 lead midway through. The Lakers scored six of the next seven points to get back within one but Quincy built the lead back to four points at 23-19. Newman picked up a kill and followed it up with an assist block with Hatten to make it 23-21. Newman had another kill and Jeff Hartman posted a kill to tie the score at 23-23. The Lakers finally took the lead on the next point on a Quincy attack error.

Tied at 24-24, Mercyhurst reeled off the final six points in a row, closed out by a kill from Wagner to send the match to a fifth game.

In the deciding game, Mercyhurst scored nine of the final 12 points to break open a 6-6 tie and win the match.

Newman had his 19 kills on 28 attempts with a .571 attack percentage. Hatten had 44 assists, 10 digs, nine blocks and five kills. Jonathan Gurr had 11 kills and seven digs. Hartman led the team with 11 digs.

Mercyhurst never led in the opening game but trailed by just one point at 18-17. Quincy extended the lead to six points at 26-20 and held on for the 30-24 win. In game two, the Lakers led by as many as 12 points and held off a late charge by the Hawks to win 30-26. Quincy led for much of game three but the Lakers fought off two game points before the Hawks finally put it away on a Shawn Brannick kill for the 31-29 win.

Mercyhurst hit .209 for the match and improved in each of the first four games, going from .087 to .136 to .154 to .379. In the deciding game, the Lakers hit .312. Quincy hit .241 in winning game one and .250 to win game three, but did not hit better than .135 in any of the other three games. The Hawks hit -.050 in game five and just .146 for the match.

Mercyhurst (5-15, 1-8 MIVA) and Quincy (17-22, 0-9 MIVA) will play again at the Mercyhurst Athletic Center Thursday at 7 p.m.