Kansas Wesleyan's Men's Volleyball team struggled to contain William Penn's three-pronged attack as the Coyotes fell in straight sets to the Statesmen 27-25, 25-21, 31-29 on Monday night at Mabee Arena.
 
It was the home finale for the Coyotes and a rescheduled match that was originally set to be played on March 4, but was postponed due to inclement weather.
 
The Coyotes struggled to stop WPU's Ben Cemeno-Castillo, Britten Beallis and Josh Bluhm who combined for 39 of William Penn's 48 kills in the match.
 
The Coyotes jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set and led until the Statesmen tied it up at 5-all. A WPU service error, a block by Zayin Martinez and Colin Lindo, and another hitting error by Penn gave the Coyotes an 8-5 lead.
 
A 6-1 run by WPU gave the Statesmen an 11-9 lead. WPU pushed the lead back to 15-11 before the Coyotes rattled off five straight points capped by Lindo's service ace to give KWU a 16-15 lead. William Penn claimed the lead again at 19-17, but the Coyotes came back and tied it on Jeremy Lapeze's service ace at 20-20.
 
WPU had set point at 24-22, but the Coyotes didn't give in, instead scoring the next three to have their own set point at 25-24. However, the Statesmen scored the last three points of the set to win 27-25.
 
KWU opened the second set on a 4-0 run, but WPU scored the next six to take a 6-4 lead. WPU led 9-7 when the teams traded points back and forth over the next seven points before KWU scored two in a row to tie the set at 12. The next 10 points went back and forth again until KWU scored three straight to take a 19-17 lead. KWU led 21-20 but could not score again as WPU scored the last five points of the set to win 25-21.
 
William Penn jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the third set, and would hold a 12-7 lead, and would continue to lead by four or five points until the Coyotes cut the difference to 22-19. After a WPU point to make it 23-19, the Coyotes would score the next four points capped by a kill from Justin Burras to tie the set at 23-all.
 
WPU had first try at set point, but the Coyotes would get a Burras kill to tie it. Again, WPU had set point, but again the Coyotes tied it now at 25. Several more times the Coyotes would fight off set point chances by the Statesmen, until WPU would score the final two points of the match to get the sweep.
 
Burras and Zayin Martinez led the Coyotes with eight kills each. Ryan Wagner, who was named HEART Defender of the Week earlier on Monday had seven kills and added four blocks. Ethan Ricketts had 25 assists. Burras had four service aces.
The Coyotes will close out the regular season with three straight road matches starting this weekend at Morningside on Friday and Dordt on Saturday. KWU closes the season next Tuesday at Park.