Statesmen Swept by Mount Mercy

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's volleyball team had an off night as it fell 3-0 to Mount Mercy in a Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup Tuesday.

WPU (2-5, 1-3 Heart), which lost by scores of 21-25, 21-25, 25-27, was outhit .144-.069.

Eli Herro (Sr., Dousman, Wis., Business Management) opened the evening with an ace, one of two for the senior on Tuesday.  That helped the navy and gold to a 4-1 advantage, but the Mustangs (6-1, 3-1 Heart) stormed back to go up 11-7.

Still down 14-11, the Statesmen found a groove and recaptured the lead at 16-15.  Unfortunately, after back-to-back sideouts, WPU permitted four unanswered points and eventually lost the first set.

The hosts trailed for most of the second round, finally recording their first lead at 13-12.  William Penn drew even one final time at 19-19, but in a set where it was limited to a .032 hitting clip, the home squad could not get over the hump and fell behind 2-0.

The third set was a back-and-forth battle.  The Mustangs were up 15-13, but the Statesmen scored seven of the next 10 points and appeared to have turned the corner.  Unfortunately, MMU ran down the hosts and finished the match with four of the final five points.

The Statesmen lost the bout despite tallying a 10-4 edge blocks and topping MMU 5-4 in aces.  Unfortunately, William Penn also committed 17 service errors, while the Mustangs had just 11 serving mistakes.

Ike Papes (Jr., Elwood, Ill., Sports Management), Devyn Zavala (Jr., Long Beach, Calif., Wellness and Recreation), and Charlie Figy (Jr., Appleton, Wis., Secondary Education) all ended up with six kills; Figy owned a team-high .364 attack clip as well.  Herro added four kills to his two aces, while also matching Zavala with four block assists.

Matt Helmick (Jr., Fullerton, Calif., Business Management) tallied 24 assists, while Landon Krause (Jr., Appleton, Wis., Business Management), playing in a limited role in his first match back from injury, guided the defense with five digs.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Marshall, Mo. Friday to face Missouri Valley in Heart play at 7 p.m.