CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The University of Charleston men's volleyball team was back at home this evening as they took on Sacred Heart University for the first game of two between them on the weekend. 
 
JUST THE BASICS
LOCATION: Charleston, W. Va. – Wehrle Innovation Center
SCORE: Charleston: 3 Sacred Heart: 1
RECORDS: Charleston: (3-9, 1-3 EIVA) Sacred Heart (4-3, 0-2 EIVA)
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Charleston was able to get out to an early 8-4 lead over the Pioneers. They had the offense going early as four of those points came from Charleston kills. Sacred Heart would come back to bring the game to within two points as the score was 10-8 Charleston. UC would tally three more points making it a 13-8 game before the first timeout of the set was taken. 
 
Following the timeout, UC would continue to widen the gap as they reached a lead of 18-10. The Pioneers would rally four points together to bring the game back to within four as the score stood at 18-14 Charleston before the second timeout of the set was taken. 
 
Sacred Heart would try to mount a comeback as they made the game interesting reaching a score of 24-20, but UC would ultimately take the set on a kill from Ismael Sneed winning the set 25-20. 
 
UC had 13 kills on 29 attempts with four errors giving them a .310 hitting percentage. Sacred Heart had nine kills on 20 attempts with six attacking errors netting them a .100 hitting percentage. UC had one ace, four blocks and four service errors in the set while the Pioneers had two aces, three blocks and four service errors. 
 
The second set was tightly contested in the first few points as Sacred Heart jumped out to a 6-3 lead over the Golden Eagles before the first timeout of the set was taken. 
 
Following the timeout, SHU would widen their lead to nine points as they went up 15-6 over UC before the second timeout of the set was taken. 
 
UC would never really recover after falling behind early. The Pioneers would go on to take the set by a score of 25-16 to bring the match even at 1-1.
 
Charleston had eight kills on 26 attempts with five attacking errors giving them a .115 hitting percentage while the Pioneers had 15 kills on 26 attempts with four attacking errors giving them a .423 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles had one ace, one block and three service errors in the set. The Pioneers had two aces, no blocks and two service errors. 
 
The third set would start even as the score reached 3-3 before the Golden Eagles were able to pull ahead by six with a 10-4 lead before the first timeout of the set was taken. 
 
UC would continue to apply the pressure as they held onto their six-point lead even as the score reached 16-9. The Golden Eagles continued to play hard as they would widen their lead to 10 taking a 10-point lead late in the set by a score of 24-14. Charleston would take the set on a service error by the Pioneers winning it 25-15. 
 
Charleston had 15 kills on 23 attempts with three attacking errors giving them a .522 hitting percentage while SHU had four kills on 19 attempts with three attacking errors netting them a .053 hitting percentage. UC had one ace, one block and five service errors in the set while the Pioneers had one ace, one block and four service errors. 
 
The fourth set would reach a tie score of 4-4 early on. Each would take turns exchanging blows throughout the set. Charleston would take the lead in the middle portion of the set winning by a score of 12-8. Sacred Heart would come back to bring the game back to even at a score of 14 all. The game would stay tight even down the stretch as Charleston clung to a two-point lead of 22-20 over the Pioneers.  A kill by Will Kimenhour would put UC up 23-20. He would then come up to serve and give his team a 24-20 lead with an ace.  SHU would take a timeout.
 
SHU would come back to score three straight points following the timeout making it a 24-23 game. UC would then take a timeout of their own.
 
Charleston would take the last point of the set on an error by the Pioneers. Charleston would go on to take the set 25-23. 
 
Charleston had 14 kills on 36 attempts with six attacking errors giving them a .222 hitting percentage. The Pioneers had 14 kills on 28 attempts with four attacking errors giving them a .286 hitting percentage. UC had one ace, no blocks and five service errors. Sacred Heart had no aces, three blocks, and two service errors. 
 
 
 NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Sophomore Diego Villafane reached a career milestone of over 1,000 assists becoming the second player in UC history to reach that mark. Freshman Ismael Sneed had a season-high nine kills and junior Max Senica had a season-high of 10 kills making it the 18th double-figure kill game of his career. 
 
UP NEXT 
The Golden Eagles will be back at it again tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. as they will take on the Pioneers from Sacred Heart again for the second match of the weekend.