PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Geneva College men's volleyball team returned to action on Thursday night after a ten-day break, falling in a tight four-set match at Chatham 27-25, 24-26, 19-25, 15-25.  Geneva, who was missing two starters in the match, is now 8-14 overall, 2-5 in conference play.

Chatham led for much of the first set, but only by a point or two in a very evenly played set.  Geneva used a three-point run late in the set behind two kills from junior Owen Kelley and a kill from senior Evan Puhl, to take its first lead, 19-18, since opening the match with a kill.  The set went back-and-forth the rest of the way.  The Cougars had two set points at the end, but Geneva fought those off to win 27-25.

The second set followed a similar script, though this time it was Geneva that held a lead for the first half of the set, but never by more than two points.  Chatham took its first lead since early in the set at 16-15, and after a kill from Kelley, the Cougars followed with an 8-2 run to get to set point, 24-18.  The Golden Tornadoes fought all six of those set points off to pull even, only to see Chatham score the final two points to win 26-24, evening the match up.

The third set was equally as tight for most of the set until Chatham to use a late run to win.  Geneva led 16-14 after kills from Puhl and freshman Hunter Mozley, but the Cougars finished the set on an 11-3 run to win 25-19.

 Chatham carried that strong finish to the third set into the fourth, jumping out to a big early lead, 11-5.  Geneva battled back to pull within two points, 12-10, but the Golden Tornadoes could not get any closer as Chatham pulled away to finish off the match, 25-15.

Kelley led the team with 16 kills, along with ten digs, while Puhl added ten kills and freshman Aaron Villi seven kills.  Geneva hit just .111 as a team, compared to a .231 effort by Chatham.  Senior Andrew Ubinger finished with 36 assists and 12 digs.

Geneva will return to action next Wednesday with a 7:00 p.m. home match against Thiel.