GRANTHAM, Pa.. – The Stevenson men's volleyball team continued to be red-hot as they defeated Middle Atlantic Conference opponent Messiah College by a final of 3-1 on Thursday night at Hitchcock Arena. 

Stevenson (9-5, 4-0 MAC), stayed unbeaten in the MAC taking the contest by set scores of 23-25, 25-19, 25-16, and 25-13.  The Mustangs with the victory extend their winning streak to five matches in a row and remain at the top of the MAC standings.     

Junior Jason Gardner led the way for the Mustangs with 12 kills hitting .269 and four digs.  Junior Landon Shorts added nine kills, four aces, and three blocks.  Freshman Nate Reynolds chipped in eight kills and five blocks.  Freshman Logan Smiley and senior Alex Klunk combined for 13 kills, seven blocks, and four aces.  Freshman Aleks Melbardis handed out a team-high 30 assists. 

Messiah (5-3, 3-1 MAC), was paced by Matt Knab who posted 13 kills, four digs, and two blocks.  Travis Hoover totaled ten kills, eight digs, and two blocks.  Logan Hunsberger and Noah Shreiner each recorded six kills.  Jarred Sands had a nice night picking up four kills and three blocks.  Brad Nase dished out a game-high 35 assists.

The Falcons got out to a quick start on a kill from Hunsberger and an attack error from Gardner put the guests down 2-0.  Kills from Shorts and Smiley aided in a 3-1 Stevenson push to tie the score 3-3.  The following ten points were divided evenly between the two sides and the set remained at a draw 8-8.  Messiah then took advantage of some Mustangs attack errors to grab five consecutive points to open up a 13-8 edge.  Stevenson cut the deficit down to on kill by Reynolds after a feed from junior Jared Chin making the score 17-15.  A kill from Hoover extended the margin out to three 20-17.  The visitors continued to trail until an error from Knab courtesy of a combination block by Smiley and Klunk drew things even at 22-22.  On the ensuing point, a service error committed by Klunk and then a kill from Sands made it 24-22.  Gardner picked up a kill to pull it to within 24-23 leading to a Falcons timeout.  Out of the break, a setting error by Melbardis gave the frame to the home side 25-23. 

Set number two started even with the teams sharing the opening eight points knotting the score 4-4.  Back-to-back Stevenson kills from Gardner and Reynolds kept things level at 6-6.  With the resting at 7-7 the Mustangs grabbed the next three points to snag a 10-7 on a kill by Reynolds, and blocks by Melbardis and Shorts which lead to a Messiah timeout.  Stevenson pushed the lead out to four 12-8 after an attack error from Shreiner.  The advantage continued to hover between three and four points until another Falcons error extended the edge to six at 18-12.  Down the stretch, the home side got the margin down to four on separate occasions (18-14, 19-15, 21-17 and 22-18), but could not get closer than that as a service error from Knab handed the second to Stevenson 25-19. 

Once again, the teams began a set tight by evenly splitting the first six points to be deadlocked at 3-3.  The hosts took the next three on a kill from Sands and a pair of aces by Hunsberger taking a 6-3 lead.  An attack error by Shorts gave the Falcons a 10-5 lead, but that seemed only spark the Mustangs as they took the following five points to tie the score 10-10.  During that run, the away side got kills from Shorts and Smiley, in addition to an ace by Melbardis.  The sides shared the ensuing eight points coming out of a Messiah timeout and the score remained even 14-14.  Stevenson then took control of the set by embarking on an 8-0 run with help from three aces by Smiley to take a 22-14 advantage.  Kills from Shorts and Melbardis sandwiched a kill by Knab to jump ahead 24-16.  Melbardis capped off the third with another ace to end the frame 25-16. 

With the score level at 5-5 to open up the fourth kills coming from Smiley and Reynolds ended a 3-0 Mustangs run to take an 8-5 lead.  The Falcons trimmed the lead to two 10-8 after a kill by Knab.  Another 3-0 push by Stevenson extended the advantage to five 13-8.  Messiah stunted the momentum for a brief moment after an attack error by Gardner made it 13-9.  The away side took to putting the pressure right back on the home side taking the next six points to grab a ten-point advantage 19-9.  That streak saw three different Mustangs contribute to the scoring with three aces from Shorts, two kills for Smiley, and a kill by Klunk.  Stevenson extended the margin to twelve on two different occasions off an attack error by Jarred Sands (23-11), and a kill by Reynolds (24-12).  A kill from Shorts ended the proceedings at 25-13.    

The Mustangs as a team hit .287 on 45 kills, while Messiah hit .125 and totaled 40 kills.  Stevenson continued to be strong in the service game picking up 11 aces to the Falcons three.

The Mustangs will be back in action on Saturday, February, 24 when they travel to Harrisonburg, Va. for a tri-match at Eastern Mennonite University with Ramapo and fourth-ranked Eastern Mennonite.  First serve against the Roadrunners is set for 1pm, with the match versus the Royals slated for 3pm.