ERIE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's volleyball team suffered their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) loss of the year to Penn State Behrend in five sets on Tuesday night.

Thiel opened the match with a first set victory (25-22) to take a 1-0 advantage into the second. Penn State Behrend would collect each of the next two sets by scores of 25-22 in the second and third.

The Tomcats would take the fourth set 25-23 to force a match-deciding fifth set. In the fifth, Behrend jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Thiel closed the gap to 5-3. A four-point run by the Lions made it 9-3. The Tomcats made it a one point set (14-13) before a kill from Behrend's Joey Reynolds ended the match in favor of the Lions.

Thiel had three players with double-digit kills as Chance Hoffman (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) collected 15, while Jacob Burkley (Waterford, Pa./Fort LeBoeuf) and Jacob DeRue (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) each added 14 apiece.
Stephen Borgen (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler Area) collected a season-high 53 assists, while Mitch Patterson (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) collected a game-high 16 digs.

With the loss, Thiel picks up their first loss in conference play on the year. Thiel sits at 7-9 overall and 4-1 in the AMCC.

The Tomcats are back in action on Saturday as they face Hiram College and Geneva College in an AMCC trimatch.