Jan. 24, 2004

Box Score

The George Mason men's volleyball team opened its home schedule on Saturday night with a visit from the defending NCAA national champions and 11th-ranked Lewis needed strong performances from all of its talented players to hold off the Patriots. The Flyers scratched out two-point wins in the first two games and rode an early lead to a win in the third as Lewis downed George Mason, 31-29, 30-28, 30-25.

The Flyers (2-3) had excellent performances from a trio of players, all of whom it .400 or better on the day. Fabiano Barreto led the Flyers in kills, with 16, Enrique Escalante was tops in hitting percentage, with a .692 percentage (10 kills in 13 attempts) while Greg Pochopien was somewhere in between, with 12 kills and a .556 hitting percentage. As a team, Lewis had a .316 hitting percentage.

George Mason (0-3) had 41 kills in the game, but they were concentrated on the attacks of Felix Campos and Matt Steinfurth. Campis had 15 kills on 35 attacks while Steinfurth had 16 kills and a .393 hitting percentage.

Early on, it looked as if the Patriots might finally beat Lewis in this, the tenth meeting between the schools. George Mason erased an early 12-7 deficit and came back to take a 28-27 lead. But Lewis responded by winning four of the next five points to close out the first game, 31-29.

The second game also saw the Flyers pull ahead and give themselves a little cushion, this time with a 22-18 lead. But the Patriots rallied to tie the match at 28-28. That's when Pochopien and Barreto had back-to-back kills to ice the second game.

Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Patriots struggled to find their momentum. They fell behind 10-4 and were never able to get closer than three points the rest of the way.

The George Mason men's volleyball team is in action again on Friday when it hosts Dalhouise at 7 p.m.