LORETTO, PA (April 10, 2015)—Enzo Mackenzie (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) led the match with 22 kills hitting .341 as the Sacred Heart men's volleyball team lost one of the closest matches of the year 3-2 to Saint Francis U on the road Friday night. Junior Austin Arcala (Long Beach, Calif.)posted a double-double with 14 kills and 10 assists as the Pioneers fall to 12-10 on the season and 3-6 in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association play.

Sacred Heart held a healthy lead in the first set after Mackenzie's five-point service run, but the Red Flash chipped away and on Stephen Braswell's seven-point service run SFU took the lead 13-10. The Pioneers kept the score close, coming within one point 15-14 on a SFU attack error, but they could never overcome to take back the lead and dropped the first sent 25-22.

Back-and-forth action saw the score tie 14 times in the second set as Mackenzie racked up seven kills. With the score even at 19, a kill from Keith Kegerreis tipped the score back in Saint Francis's favor and forced Sacred Heart Head Coach Kalani Efstathiou to call a time out. The Red Flash earned another point of a Pioneer error before SHU took the next two tying the score again at 21. The score knotted at 22 and 23 before SFU moved to set-point on a triple block, but Sacred Heart wasn't done yet and leveled the score again at 24 forcing extra points. The score tied one more time at 25 before back-to-back kills from Mike Marshman and Braswell gave Saint Francis a 2-0 match lead with the 27-25 win.

The Pioneers dominated the third set winning their first of the match 25-15. Service streaks from Eduardo Zardo (Basilia, Brazil), Christopher Delucie (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) and Mackezine as well as capitalizing on Saint Francis errors gave SHU the boost it needed.

The Red Flash came out to an early 4-1 lead in the fourth set looking to clinch the match, but SHU came back knotting the score at 10. Saint Francis took the next point putting them back in the lead, but Travis Vonholt's (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) strong serving gave SHU its first lead of the set, 17-16. From there the teams exchanged points eventually tying the game at 24. A kill from Mackenzie moved SHU to set-point and an attack error by the Red Flash evened the match at two sets a piece with Sacred Heart's 26-24 win.

After the score tied seven times early, the Red Flash earned a two-point advantage, 10-8, causing SHU to call a timeout. The break proved fruitful as SFU committed a service error on the next ball, but claimed the following two point once again extending its short lead. The Pioneers could never overcome that two-point deficit and Saint Francis clinched the match with the 15-13 win.

Sacred Heart is back in action tomorrow night at Penn State at 7:00 p.m.