The Misericordia University men's volleyball team dropped a tough five-set match at NYU in a battle between two nationally-ranked teams, Wednesday.
 
The 19^th-ranked Cougars took a 2-1 lead, but the 12th-ranked Violets rallied to win the final two sets.
 
MU took the first set, 25-20, and NYU pulled even with a 25-23 win.  Misericordia took the third set, 25-19, and NYU won 25-19, 15-7 to clinch the win.
 
Jared Piontkowski led the Cougars with 22 kills, thee aces and three blocks.  Anthony DePalma had 10 kills and two aces and Zane Martin had five kills and three blocks.  Benjamin Clendening had four blocks and Gannon DeFrain had 37 assists.
 
Down 18-17 in the opener, the Cougars closed on a 7-3 run to win 25-20.  DePalma had an ace and Piontkowski had two kills in the decisive run.
 
After dropping the second set, the Cougars never trailed in the third set to take a 2-1 lead.  Piontkowski's kill and two aces by DeFrain keyed a 4-0 run to give MU a 15-10 lead.  DePalma had two kills as part of a 3-1 run to close the set.
 
NYU used a 5-0 run take a 13-9 lead in the fourth set and then closed on a 4-2 run.
 
The Cougars scored the first two points to open the finale, but the Violets answered with eight straight points.