Wells Comes Through With Five-Set Playoff Victory

Wells Comes Through With Five-Set Playoff Victory

The Wells College men's volleyball team earned a five-set victory over Lancaster Bible College on Friday, April 14 in a North Eastern Athletic Conference playoff semifinal match in Altoona, Pa. Wells won by set scores of 26-24, 20-25, 25-20, 13-25, 16-14. The Express advances to Saturday's championship match at 1 p.m. Wells will take on tournament host and top seed Penn State Altoona.

The victory lifted Wells' record to 19-12 on the year and Lancaster Bible is 25-9. It was the first-ever postseason victory for the Wells men's volleyball program, and the second time in program history that Wells has qualified for the NEAC playoffs.

Wells took the opening set 26-24 depite the Express recording just seven kills in the set. Wells picked up seven more points on Lancaster Bible service errors. Lancaster Bible won the first three points of the set, but Wells scored the next three to tie the score 3-3. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way, and Wells won the final two points of the set after it was tied 24-24.

LBC came back to win the second set by a 25-20 score, and then Wells took the third set 25-20. In the third set, Wells took a 19-13 lead and went on to claim the win. Lancaster Bible overwhelmed Wells in the fourth set and took a 25-13 victory to force a deciding fifth set.

Both teams hit effectively in the fifth set. Wells had 10 kills and a .348 hitting percentage. Lancaster Bible had 11 kills and a .409 percentage. Wells edged ahead 11-6 and forced a timeout from Lancaster Bible. The Chargers responded and went on an 8-2 run and had match point, leading 14-13. Brannon Perdicho had a kill to deny the set point, and Wells won the next two points on a kill from Caden O'Loughlin and service ace from Brannon Perdicho.

Perdicho led Wells with 16 kills and O'Loughlin had 12 kills. Perdicho served four aces and had 13 digs. Kevin Batmunkh had 10 digs. Josh Undari had 24 assists and Scott Litvin had 21 assists. Jonathan Haines had one solo block and two block assists.

Prior to the match, Perdicho, O'Loughlin, and Ryan Turner were presented with their all-conference awards.