LAKE WALES, Fla. (March 16, 2021) – Coming off of two wins last week over No. 14 Life University and Reinhardt University at home, the Webber International University men's volleyball team forced five sets and put up a great fight on the road, but ultimately, the Warriors fell to their Crooked Lake rival Warner University 3-2 (19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 16-14) on Tuesday night inside the Turner Athletic Center.

Down 17-16 in the first set, Webber closed it out on a 9-2 run to win it and take a 1-0 set lead on a kill by Gunter Perea Quevedo.

It was the end of a stretch of 13 straight set wins for the Royals over a span of five matches starting back on February 27 during their five-set win over No. 2 Campbellsville University.

Warner answered back in the second set with an 8-1 run that broke a 9-9 tie to make it a 17-10 Royals' advantage.

In the third set, Webber led 11-5 before a 7-0 Royal run put Warner up 12-11. Then tied at 17-17, Warner scored the next three points to go up for good in the set.

Up 13-12 in the fourth set, the Warriors rattled off five straight points on back-to-back kills by Chris Ludwig, a block by Zachary Ayala and Peyten Young, a block by Young and Ludwig, and a kill by Ayala to take an 18-12 lead.

Webber won the fourth set on back-to-back kills by the lefties, Ayala and Ludwig, to tie the match back up at two sets apiece.

Webber hit a great .538 percent with 15 kills in the fourth set, seven of which were by Ayala, and then in the fifth set, the Warriors led 5-3 on the 14th kill of the match by Perea Quevedo.

Webber then led 9-5 on a kill by Ayala before Warner battled back to make it 9-8.

A service error by Warner made it 10-8 Warriors, but then a 3-0 run for the Royals made it 11-10 in favor of the home team.

From there, a kill by Daniel Hermida tied it at 11-11, and then Hermida tied it again at 12-12 with another kill.

After two big blocks on the next two plays gave Warner match point, Webber stayed alive with a kill by Ayala and a kill by Ludwig to tie it again at 14-14, but unfortunately, the Warriors just did not have enough left in the tank as two final kills by the Royals ended it.

Perea Quevedo finished with a career-high 14 kills on a .400 attack percentage, Ludwig had 13 kills, and Ayala had 12 kills.

Justin Beecher dished out 41 assists, Daniel Suarez had 14 digs, and Young had a new career-high seven blocks.

After previously winning three of its last four matches, Webber fell to 7-8 overall and 5-5 in the Mid-South Conference with the loss on Tuesday while Warner won its eighth match in a row to improve to 8-2 both overall and in the conference. Webber is also now 1-5 all-time against Warner, and is 0-4 at Warner.

Head Coach Carlos Jimenez said, "It was a tough opponent tonight, and the team struggled through the second and third sets and was unable to coordinate its efforts until the fourth set, which put us in a position we have seen before. Fifth-set dynamics are quite volatile, so we must do a better job of maintaining our gains at the beginning of the match."

Next up, Webber will have two more road matches this week as the Warriors play at Truett-McConnell University at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, and then play at St. Andrews University at 10 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, March 20.