FORT WAYNE, IND. (January 10, 2014)—Will LeClerc (Fairfield, Conn.) led the Pioneers with 11 kills as the Sacred Heart men's volleyball team dropped the season-opener to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) 3-0  (25-18, 25-18, 25-20) Friday night.

After spending last year on the bench with an injury, Enzo Mackenzie (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) led Sacred Heart tallying 13 points with 10 kills and two service aces. The red-shirt junior also led the team collecting nine digs over the three sets.

The Mastodons opened the match with a 4-1 run taking an immediate lead that the Pioneers could never come back from. Despite cutting the lead to just one point, 10-9, thanks to a Travis Vonholt (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) kill, IPFW answered with an 8-1 run improving their lead to 18-10. Sacred Heart put up a fight until the end scoring seven more points, but IPFW took the 1-0 match lead with a 25-18 win.

The Pioneers took the first point of the second set on an IPFW service error, but didn't capitalize on it as the Mastodons claimed the next five points on Bryan Saunders' service run. IPFW never looked back from there all the way to another 25-18 win heading into the break.

Brad Borsay's (Richmond, R.I.) service run started Sacred Heart off right in the third set boasting them to a quick 3-0 lead. IPFW chipped away and even tied the score at 14 on Eddie Rivera's four-point service run, but the Pioneers always managed to hang on to the lead. The Mastodons took their first lead of the set on Scott McNerney's three-point service run, but a kill from LeClerc evened the score again at 18. A SHU attack error sparked a 7-2 IPFW sprint to the finish line with the 25-20 win.

Sacred Heart continues their road trip Saturday against Ball State at 7:30 p.m.