The Misericordia University men's volleyball season came to an end with a tough 3-1 loss at Messiah in the MAC semifinals, Thursday night.
 
The eighth-ranked Falcons won 28-26, 25-21, 20-25, 26-24 to advance to the MAC title match at Stevens.
 
Jared Piontkowski led the Cougars with 15 kills and four aces and Anthony DePalma added 13 kills and nine digs.
 
Jackson Fehnel had nine kills and Gannon DeFrain had 45 assists.
 
Benjamin Clendening and Issac Griffin both had three blocks.
 
The Cougars trailed throughout the first set, but got two kills and an ace from Piontkowski to fuel a 7-2 run to pull even, 23-23.
 
DePalma had two kills to put MU in two set-point situations, but the Falcons scored three straight points to win, 28-26.
 
Messiah broke a 12-12 tie with two straight points in the second set and went on to win, 25-21, to take a 2-0 lead.
 
The Cougars never trailed in the third set and used a 6-1 run to break a 5-5 tie and go in front for good.  Three straight errors gave MU a 17-12 lead and kills from Griffin and DePalma gave MU a 21-17 lead.
 
Fehnel closed the 25-20  win with a kill.
 
In the fourth set, Piontkowski had two kills and an ace to break an11-11  tie and give MU a 15-12  lead.
 
Fehnel and Piontkowski had two kills each as the Cougars took a 24-21 lead.
 
Messiah scored five straight points to secure a come-from-behind win to clinch the match.