Playing in its second-to-last North Eastern Athletic Conference Weekend of the season, the Lancaster Bible men's volleyball team dropped three matches over the weekend in Altoona, Pa. as the Chargers lost to SUNY Polytechnic, Wells and Keuka. Lancaster Bible is 7-19 overall and 2-11 in conference play with four matches left, three of them NEAC contests.

SUNY Polytechnic 3, Lancaster Bible 0
25-12, 27-25, 25-18

After dropping the first set, 25-12, the Chargers trailed 20-16 in the second set before mounting a comeback and tying the set at 23-23. The Wildcats took a 24-23 lead, but a kill from Derek Bigley tied it at 24-24. After the teams traded points, SUNY Poly used a kill from AJ Davis and an error from the Chargers to win the set, 27-25. The Wildcats kept the momentum and won the third set, 25-18. 

Bigley led the Chargers with 10 kills, while Sky Woelkers and Gentry each had four kills. Gentry added a team-high five blocks and Joshua Rotz had a team-high five digs. 

Wells 3, Lancaster Bible 2
25-22, 19-25, 28-26, 15-25, 15-13

Lancaster Bible played one of its best matches of the season, but lost a heartbreaker to Wells in five sets. With the match tied 1-1, the teams played an epic third set as Wells jumped out to an early 7-4 lead. The Chargers eventually tied the set at 8-8 and the teams traded points for almost the entire set after that. The Chargers once again trailed 24-23, but a service error by the Express gave the Chargers new life. Lancaster Bible fought off two more set points thanks to kills from Bigley and Gentry, but back-to-back kills from Brannon Perdicho gave the set to Wells, 28-26. 

The Chargers fought right back for a 25-15 fourth set victory as they turned an 8-7 lead into a 19-10 advantage midway through the set. The final set was exactly like the rest of the match as the teams traded jabs back-and-forth. With the set tied 6-6, Wells won four straight points to take a 10-6 lead. Lancaster Bible responded with three straight points to cut the deficit to 10-9, but Wells won three of the next four points to make it 13-10. The Chargers returned the favor and won three of four points and faced a match point at 14-13. An error by the Chargers iced the match for the Express who improved to 10-16, 6-7 NEAC.

Despite the loss, the match was a huge one for the Chargers, specifically Gentry and Bigley. Gentry set a new program record with 27 kills in the match. The previous record of 25 was set by Mitch Demko on March 1, 2014 also against Wells. Gentry also broke the program record for attacks in a match as his 71 were three more than the 68 that A.J. Longacre had on Jan. 23, 2010 against City College of New York. Gentry also added 14 digs and six blocks as he scored 32 points for the Chargers. Bigley added 16 kills for the Chargers and also had 14 digs. Woelkers led the Chargers with 18 digs and also had six blocks, while Caleb Strite had four kills and three blocks. Joshua Rotz chipped in with 12 digs, while Nick Eberly had a team-high three aces. Freshman Garyd Martin had 44 assists in the match and also had 12 digs. 

Keuka 3, Lancaster Bible 0
25-23, 25-17, 25-21

The Chargers tried to muster any energy they had left for their second match of the day, but came up short against a good Keuka squad as the Wolfpack rolled to a three-set victory. The Chargers led, 16-11 midway through the first set, but Keuka strung together five straight points to tie the set at 16-16. Lancaster Bible took a 20-19 lead on a kill from Bigley, but the Wolfpack answered with five of the next points and took a 24-21 lead. Errors on back-to-back plays from Keuka cut Lancaster Bible's deficit to 24-23, but after a timeout, the Wolfpack's Josh Makin converted a kill and won the set for Keuka.

Bigley paced the Chargers with nine kills and also had two aces. Gentry added five kills and seven digs, while Rotz led the team with eight digs. 

Up Next: Lancaster Bible hosts its final match of the season on Wednesday as the Chargers welcome Cairn to Horst Athletic Center at 7 p.m.