Keuka Park, NY (Mar. 15, 2017) – The Purchase College men's volleyball team traveled to Keuka College over the weekend for a non-conference tournament hosted by the Wolves.  The Panthers battled for a 3-2 victory over Alvernia University on Friday night, and continued action on Saturday against Keuka and Southern Vermont University.  Purchase dropped the match against Keuka (3-0) before defeating SVC (3-0) to close out the weekend.

In the opening match on Saturday, Keuka jumped out to a 9-4 lead over the Panthers in the first set.

The Wolves would extend their lead 15-6 off a five-point run on the serve of Alex Riley. They would go on to win the first set 25-18.

The Wolves again were able to jump out to an early 12-6 lead and ride that lead to a dominating 25-11 second set win. Highlighting the set was a long serving run from Jared Kucko that included four aces. Keuka College would end with their first match of the day in straight sets winning the final set 25-20 against the Panthers.

Lead Wolf: Connor Gail lead the team in both kills and digs. Gail had eight kills on a .312 hitting percentage. Gail added nine digs and two assists to his totals for the first match of the day.

The Panthers rebounded with a 3-0 shutout over Southern Vermont in game two of the day.  Purchase opened the first set with a 25-19 win before the two sides battled to a 29-27 PC win in the second. The Panthers then edged Southern 25-22 in the third frame for the victory.

Panther senior Andrew Schwab (Merrick, NY) led Purchase with 12 kills (.200). Kevin Carges (SR/Brockport, NY) was not far behind with nine kills and a team-high 11 digs, while Riley Damerell (Rochester, NY) in the assists column with 24 total.

Kills from a variety of Mountaineers helped SVC stake a 6-4 upper hand in the onset of the match, but Purchase rallied with a 12-1 run to go in front by eight. Southern Vermont cut it down to a one-point deficit with the help of an Elmer Olivares ace, and the rest of the set was tightly contested between the two squads. Olivares put down a kill to make it 22-19 in favor of the Panthers, but Purchase ended it with the next three to go up 1-0 in the tilt.

SVC went on top 4-1 to start the second—only to see the Panthers score five in-a-row soon-after for a 9-6 lead. Southern Vermont responded and would tie it at 11-11 before going ahead 14-13. Purchase rallied to take a six-point upper hand, but the Mountaineers stayed in it and eventually forced the set to go to extra points. The Panthers would get the last two, however, as an ace helped them take the game and grab a comfortable advantage in the match.

Purchase struggled to start the third set, allowing SVC to go in front 7-3. The Panthers started to gain some momentum in the middle of the set and won four-straight points to force a Southern Vermont timeout.  With the score tied at 21 apiece, the Panthers closed out the set with five in-a-row to win the match.

The Panthers are now 9-4 overall and will return to action at home on Mar. 15 (weather pending) at 7 p.m.