Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The 2013 Lancaster Bible men's volleyball season opened with a pair of losses on Saturday at the Penn St. Altoona Invitational, but the positives the team will take from the opening matches should help them have a very productive season.

The Chargers opened the day with a meeting against the number three ranked team in the opening American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, Juniata. The Chargers had never taken a set from the Eagles, an NCAA Division III powerhouse, until today when they battled back after dropping the first two sets to take the third set, 25-20. LBC played hard in the fourth set trying to tie-up the match, but lost, 25-18.

"We had a great team effort and it was a great start to our season," Chargers' Head Coach Evelyn Long said. "The guys came out ready for a tough match and I think the combination of our serve receive and tough defense led to our success. I thought Alex [Bahn] ran our offense very effectively."

After a short break, the Chargers faced invitational host Penn St. Altoona and once against after battling back, the Chargers couldn't quite make it the whole way back and lost, 3-2 to the Nittany Lions.

The Chargers won the opening set, 25-20, but dropped the next two, 25-22, 25-14. Facing match point in the fourth set, senior A.J. Longacre kept LBC in the match on a kill to tie the set at 24-24. The teams battled back and forth before LBC was able to pull out the fourth frame, 29-27.

In the fifth and final set, the Nittany Lions strung four straight points together to turn a 5-4 lead into a 9-4 lead and never looked back, defeating the Chargers, 15-12 and winning the match, 3-2.

"We made a good attempt to come back, but it was too little, too late," Long said. " I don't think we played our best and we let down mentally and were plagued with serving errors (12). I thought Andy [Nguyen] made some big defensive saves for us with Mitch [Demko] getting us some clutch kills."

Demko finished the match with 11 kills and 14 digs, while Longacre finished with a team-high 13 kills. Joey Brennen added 10 kills, 12 digs and six blocks for the Chargers, while Bahn had 36 assists.

LBC returns to the court on Wednesday when they host Cairn at 7 p.m.