BABSON PARK, Fla. (March 6, 2021) – Two days after sweeping Truett-McConnell University in its 2021 home opener, the nationally-recognized Webber International University men's volleyball lost to its sister-school St. Andrews University in an epic five-set match, falling 3-2 (25-22, 13-25, 25-18, 24-26, 17-15) on Saturday night inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.

After dropping the first set, Webber opened up the second set leading 5-0 and then led 9-2 and 19-9 to cruise to victory. The Warriors hit .524 percent in the set while Zachary Ayala recorded six kills in the frame.

Then after losing the third set, Webber again come out hot in the next set, leading 4-0 in the fourth. However, St. Andrews went up 7-5 with four straight points before the Warriors answered with six straight points of their own to jump ahead 11-7.

Webber then led by scores of 18-12 and 20-15 before five straight points by the Knights tied it at 20-20.

From there, Ayala recorded back-to-back kills to make it 22-20 Warriors, and then a kill by Chris Ludwig made it 23-21 before the Knights tied it again at 23-23.

Another kill by Ayala made it 24-23 Warriors, and then tied at 24-24, Webber was able to force the fifth set thanks to a kill by Daniel Hermida followed by a St. Andrews' attack error.

Ayala recorded nine kills in the fourth set, and then in the fifth set, he had Webber's first two points of the set on two more kills, but the Warriors found themselves behind 6-2.

Down 9-3 in the fifth set, Webber scored five points in a row to get within one at 9-8, and then three straight points on kills by Justin Beecher and Hermida followed by an assisted block by Peyten Young and Kevin McCarthy put Webber ahead for the first time in the set at 11-10.

Later in the set, a kill by Hermida gave the Warriors' match point up 14-13, and then Webber had match point again up 15-14 after a St. Andrews' service error, but it was not meant to be as a Warrior attack error followed by back-to-back kills by the Knights' Diego Hernandez ended the night.

Hermida and Beecher both finished with three kills in the final set.

For the match, Ayala finished with a career-high 21 kills and had a .452 attack percentage. He also recorded his first career double-double with a career-best 10 digs.

Hermida reached double-digit kills for the first time so far this season with 15, and he also added a .306 attack percentage, nine digs and three service aces.

Beecher recorded nine kills and a .571 attack percentage, and had 25 assists.

Young finished with 18 assists and 12 digs for the second double-double of his freshman campaign, and added a team-high five blocks.

Additionally, Ludwig had five kills and 10 digs, Daniel Suarez had seven digs, and Austin Strickler had three blocks.

With the loss, Webber dropped to below .500 in the conference again at 3-4 and fell to 5-7 overall while St. Andrews improved to 4-4 in the conference and 5-6 overall.

Webber's Head Coach Carlos Jimenez said, "The match was well played by St. Andrews, and we came up short on our efforts with some bad matchups on blocks and area defense. The team will need to redirect efforts towards their controllables and make better decisions on the court as we head towards the second half of the season."

Webber will host two more home games next week, starting with No. 13 Life University at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, followed by a 1 p.m. meeting with Reinhardt University on Saturday, March 13.