Box Score

Owings Mills, MD- Cairn University men's volleyball's Noah Prickett blasted 21 kills in a 3-1 defeat to conference rivals Stevenson University, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 28-26.

Noah Prickett finished with a career-high 21 kills on the night, also adding 13 digs and tying for the game-high of 2 service-aces. Ryan Garven registered a solid 12 kills for his part while contributing a team-high 14 digs. Nate Seidle also put in a fine defensive display, recording 4 assisted blocks. Jon Wilson came out with 42 assists.

Kyle Wisner and Austin Jacoby had 15 kills each for the Mustangs. Jon Martin had 10 kills. David Moler had a game-high 49 assists.

Despite losing the match, not much separated the two teams throughout.

Stevenson won the opening set 25-23, never trailing in the set but Cairn refused to let them ran away with things. Trailing by as much as 7 points a couple of times, the Highlanders stormed back late in the set, getting as close as 23-22 before the host pulled out the 1-0 lead, 25-23.

The second set was hotly contested back-and-forth set. With 12 ties and 6 lead changes, the Highlanders were able to even things up a 1-1 with a 25-23 of their own. Midway through, Cairn was trailing by four points, 10-14, before going on a 5-0 run to take a 15-14 lead. The Highlanders would never trail after that point.

Just as the first two sets, the third set would go down to the wire. Stevenson found itself with a 17-13 advantage halfway through but were unable to hold off a Cairn rally that would knot things up at 21-21 and 22-22, but back-to-back kills from Kyle Wisner and Jon Martin puhed the Mustangs back out front 24-22 and leading to another 25-23 score line.

With Stevenson leading 2-1, it would take a little extra volleyball in the 4th set to determine the winner. There were 15 ties throughout, with neither team able to gain any momentum. With the score tied 22-22, the Mustangs went on a mini 2-0 run and looked set to finalize things leading 24-22. Two consecutive kills from Noah Prickett and a Stevenson attack error, swung things back in favor of Cairn, now leading 25-24. Cairn again led 26-25 with a chance to force a crucial fifth set but Stevenson's John Crinion forced it to 26-26. At that point, two attacking errors from the Highlanders gave the 3rd and final set win the host craved.

Although being conference rivals, this match did not count towards their conference records.

Cairn slips to 2-4 on the season. Stevenson improves to 2-1.

On Tuesday night, Cairn will host Hunter College at 7pm. Last season, Cairn defeated Hunter 3-2.