Men’s Volleyball came away with a win in Friday’s match but were unable to hold off Ohio State on Saturday.Photo By Stephen Kline
The George Mason men’s volleyball team came away with a 3-1 victory over the Princeton Tigers Friday night at the RAC.
Although the Patriots dropped the first set, they came back strong, winning the best-of-five match in four games (28-30, 25-16, 25-19, 26-24).
With the win, the team improved to 16-9 overall and 8-2 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
Sophomore Mark Jones led the Patriots with 15 kills, five aces and four block assists.
Sophomore Michael Kvidahl and junior Shaun Sibley followed with nine and six kills, respectively.
Sophomore setter Javier Perez totaled 36 assists, filling in for Brandon Joyner who filled a vacant spot in the middle for the Patriots.
The first set was a closely fought battle with 10 ties and, with the score tied 24-24, the match went into “overtime,” with a see-saw battle to 28-28. Princeton then scored two unanswered points to close out the game 30-28. Mason was not to be denied.
The Patriots came out on fire in the second game, jumping to a 12-3 lead behind three service aces by Jones.
The team never looked back, closing the second set with a 25-16 victory. Mason followed with a 25-19 victory in the third set.
The players clinched the match with a win in the fourth set, which was a very intense game throughout.
Again, the teams battled to a 24-24 tie, but this time it was Mason that came out on top after two Princeton attack errors.
“Our team starts with our depth,” junior Joe Norton said. “For [setter] Brandon Joyner to step up and be middle shows that our team is well rounded.”
The George Mason men’s volleyball team (16-10) gave No. 9 Ohio State a scare, but lost 3-0 to the Buckeyes Saturday night (23-25, 29-31, 16-25).
In the first set, Ohio State jumped to an early lead and led by five points (15-10) midway through the game.
But Mason went on a 6-1 run to tie the game, behind the offensive play of Norton and Jones.
The Buckeyes scored to break the tie, but the teams went back and forth and were tied again at 23, when Ohio State’s Jason Tobkin scored on a kill and the Patriots lost the final point and game on an attack error, losing 23-25.
In the second set, Mason again fell behind early (10-6), but battled back behind the spiking of Jones to tie the game at 13-13. And, just as in the first set, the two teams were tied at 23.
Mason took the lead at 25-24 and had three more chances to win the set, but could never pull out the two-point margin to win.
Tied at 29, Mason succumbed to the Buckeyes on two attack errors, losing 29-31 in “overtime.”
In the third set, Mason fell behind and this time stayed behind, losing 25-16.
Jones led the Patriots with 17 kills, three digs and one block assist, while Joyner had 35 assists.
Sibley, Eric Lucas and Norton also contributed important points at key moments of the game.
Junior Lance Rogers says that he “feels decent going into the playoffs — we’ve done well with the teams going into the playoffs and will probably meet up with Penn State. The last time we played them we had a close game and were missing like, six players and this time we’ll be stronger.”
Comments