BROOKLYN, N.Y.  — Sacred Heart University men's volleyball competed in their regular season finale Saturday night, beating top three seed LIU 3-2 in a thrilling five set victory (21-25, 27-25, 25-23, 22-25, 29-27). The Pioneers finish the regular season with three straight wins to claim the fourht seed in the NEC tournament and will host a playoff game next Wednesday against Saint Francis Brooklyn.


The Pioneers would drop the first set 25-21. SHU would keep the Sharks at bay by maintaining leads of two to three points throughout the majority of the first set until LIU clawed back to tie it at 17-17. The Sharks never looked back after that in the first set, closing on an 8-4 scoring run. 11 assists from Tyler Kwinta kept the Pioneers in the running, spreading points between Mark Berry, Patrick Mucherino, Carlos Santa Cruz and Ryan Benscoter.

On their way to winning two straight sets to get a 2-1 match lead, the Pios wins would come by a combined score of 52-48, even though the Sharks won the overall kill battle 32-28. SHUs .423 hitting percentage in the third set and winning the error battle 10-14 over the middle two sets turned out to be the pivotal factor for the red and white to set themselves up fro success.

SHU would drop the fourht set 25-22 to set up for a marathon fifth set, as the Pios would win 29-27 to wrap up the season in what would be the longest game of the season for both teams and only fititing that it would come in the season finale. The Pioneers would outscore the Sharks 89-88, SHUs highest scoring game of the season thanks to 76 kills off of 75 assists and four service aces. Teddy Payne would record a career high 47 assists.

Records:
Sacred Heart 11-12 (7-7 NEC)
LIU 16-11 (10-4 NEC)

Top Performers:
Patrick Mucherino 23 kills, 2 aces
Carlos Santa Cruz 16 kills
Ife Loverton 15 kills, 3 blocks
Teddy Payne 47 assists, 3 blocks, 12 digs
Ryan Benscoter 5 blocks
Cole Younger 15 digs

Up Next:
The Pioneers will host Saint Francis Brooklyn at Saint Francis University's campus, the site of the NEC Tournament, on Wednesday, April 19 at 7 p.m.