READING, PA (March 5, 2022) -- In their sixth consecutive road contest, the King's College men's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision at Alvernia University on Saturday afternoon in MAC play. King's falls to 11-6 overall and 1-4 against MAC opponents, while Alvernia improves to 8-6 for the 2022 season and 3-2 in the MAC.

The opening set in this matchup featured traded runs from each team. Trialing 16-12, King's (11-6, 1-4) recorded four straight to tie the set. An 8-3 rally by Alvernia (8-6, 3-2) saw the hosts one point away from securing the set, but King's took advantage of two Golden Wolves errors and a kill from sophomore Jared Piontkowski pulled King's within two, 24-22, before an Alvernia kill put the set away with King's falling 25-22.

Alvernia led early in the second set, 8-4, after scoring five straight, and that proved to be the difference down the stretch as the teams traded points to finish the set with the Golden Wolves ahead, 25-20, to lead the match, 2-0. The final set of the match was another closely contested battle between the two MAC teams, but Alvernia had the upper hand as they strung together five consecutive points mid set to hold off the Monarchs comeback efforts in the third, handing King's the 25-22 loss in the set and the 3-0 decision for the MAC match on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Jared Piontkowski led the Monarchs with 12 kills on 28 attempts, hitting .286, adding seven digs, four blocks, and four aces, while junior Joe Herman added eight kills and five digs. The junior duo of Aziz Atiyeh and George Beck shared the assists column, with Atiyeh totaling 13 helpers and five digs and Beck tallying 11 dimes and his own five digs. At the nets, junior Sam Capwell recorded five blocks while sophomore Peter Scholl had four.

Tyler Anderson led the Golden Wolves with a game-high 15 kills on 30 attempts, hitting .333, while Ethyn Burczyk handed out 24 assists. The Alvernia defense was led by Jonny Ortega with 11 digs and Shane McNicholas recorded three blocks at the net.

As a team, the Monarchs defense was solid as it held the Golden Wolves to a .253 hitting percentage, forcing 20 attack errors and edging out the hosts in blocks, 9-5.

King's finishes it's month-long road stretch with a tri-match at local Misericordia University on Saturday, March 12, as they face the host Cougars and Stevenson University in the MAC tri-match with their first matchup set to begin at noon.