The Lancaster Bible College Men's Volleyball team played their first home game of the 2025 season on Wednesday night, drawing a strong crowd as they hosted #14 Misericordia and fought back from a 2-0 deficit, falling in five sets 3-2. The Chargers move to 2-2 overall while the Cougars improve to 2-3 overall.

How it Happened:
The Chargers faced an early deficit in set one as Misericordia raced to a 6-0 lead. After getting on the board and trading points with the Cougars, LBC rattled off five straight points, starting with a kill from junior Zach Herb and ending with a monster block from sophomore Jordan Yoder. The set remained tight until the Cougars scored three in a row, making the difference as they pulled away to take the opener 25-20.

The Chargers grabbed an early lead in set two behind kills from senior Dawson Forney and junior Nicholas Marion, maintaining a slight edge over the Cougars. Another Forney kill gave LBC their largest lead of the set at 12-8 before Misericordia went on a 5-1 run to tie the set at 13. After back-and-forth play over the next few points, the Cougars separated with five of the last six points to take set two 25-22 and take a commanding 2-0 match lead.

Set three was a battle as the teams had 12 tied scores and four lead changes, with an early 8-7 lead for the Chargers after back-to-back kills from Forney. Misericordia hopped back in front 13-11 after back-to-back service aces, then the Chargers stormed back 17-15 after back-to-back aces from Yoder. The Chargers closed with four of the final five points as sophomore Jaiden Flanagan lit up the gym with back-to-back loud kills to win set three 25-22 and keep the Chargers alive.

The Cougars were firing early in set four with a 6-2 advantage, stretching it to five points at 12-7 to put the Chargers in a hole. The Chargers had to reclaim points in spurts, getting three in a row on two kills from Forney and another two from Forney later to pull within one. Misericordia tried to separate with three straight points late and had two match points, but a kill from Flanagan and a clutch dump by junior Zach Wyant helped force extra points in the set. Like Flanagan in the third set, it was Forney who knocked back-to-back kills to win set four 27-25 and force a deciding fifth set at home.

After two early ties in set five, Misericordia pulled out to an 8-4 lead on the switch. Yoder and Forney each had kills in the middle of the set, but the Cougars quickly reached match point at 14-10. The Chargers lit up the crowd as they fended off four straight match points behind some Cougar errors and a kill from Forney to tie the set at 14. The Cougars were able to regroup and finish off the set 16-14, ending an electric home opener for the Chargers with a five-set loss.

By the Numbers:
- The Chargers led with a season-high 66 kills to the Cougars' 52, while the Cougars had more aces (9-4) and blocks (8-2)
- Dawson Forney knocked a career-high 23 kills to lead the Chargers
- Jaiden Flanagan also had a career-high with 17 kills at a 47% clip for the game
- Zach Wyant dished a career-high 51 assists and added three kills
- Tyler Martin had a game-high 12 digs
- The Cougars were led by Anthony DePalma and Jared Piontkowski with 17 kills each

Information to Know:
The Chargers and Cougars are now split 2-2 in the all-time series, each going 1-1 at home in the matchup. Every one of the four matchups between the two teams has gone to at least four sets, with two of them reaching five sets. Lancaster Bible had 66 kills in the match, their fourth-most kills in a match in program history and the most since 2010. Dawson Forney's 23-kill performance tonight was the most in a single match by a Charger since 2023 and his third career game with 20+ kills, making him just the fifth player in program history with three 20-kill games. Zach Wyant became the fifth player in program history to dish 50+ assists in a single match, with 51 assists being tied for the eighth-most ever in a single match.

Up Next:
The Chargers host their first tri-match of the season this Saturday, January 18 as they take on Widener at 11:00 a.m. and Roanoke at 3:00 p.m.