Jan. 22, 2005

Box Score

Ft. Wayne, Ind. - Shaun Powell had the type of night on Friday night that athletes only dream about. Returning from an injury that had sidelined him for an entire season, Powell punished Indiana University-Purdue University Ft. Wayne, handing the George Mason men's volleyball team a 30-23, 28-30, 26-30, 34-32, 15-7 win.

Powell had a rally-scoring era school-record 39 kills while hitting a phenomenal .441. He committed just nine errors in the match on 68 attacks. The 39 kills are fifth-most in school history in any era. Powell has accumulated 61 kills in eight games this year, helping the Patriots improve to 2-0 on the year.

Powell was just part of the team in the first game, compiling six kills in a game in which everyone hit well. But in the second game, he started to stand out, with 11 kills in the game. Unfortunately, the Patriots served poorly and dropped a close game. The third game was much more lopsided in the Mastadons favor with the Patriots once again struggling from the service line.

The fourth game, though, was one of the tensest games the Patriots have played in years. Down 13-11, Mason rallied to win eight of the next 10 points and take a 19-15 lead. That lead didn't hold, though, as IPFW rallied to tie the game at 25-25. The Patriots put themselves in position to win the game, going up 29-27, but Mason couldn't close out the set easily.

Mastadon middle hitter Serdar Sikca, who finished with 19 kills and just two errors, had a kll to make it 29-28. On the next point, IPFW finally found an answer for Powell as Mitch Dreisbach and Sikca blocked Powell to tie the game at 29-29. Brock Ullrich added a service ace to give IPFW match point. On the verge of winning the 400th match in team history, the Mastadons were unable to get the big point, even when given another chance, up 31-30. But Powell evened things at 31-31. After the two teams traded errors, Powell had a kill to make it 33-32 and IPFW setter Mike Randolph had a ball-handling error to give the game to Mason.

The fifth set was never contested as Mason jumped out to a 3-0 lead, extended it to 7-2 and closed out IPFW (1-1).

Powell wasn't the only Patriot having a big match. R.J. Goubeaux had 7 kills and no errors and hit .636 and Dave Egan had a career-high 68 assists and eight digs. He topped his own career high by one and was one shy of tying the school record for single-match assists in the rally-scoring era. Felix Campos added 13 digs, including a game-saving one on match point in the fourth game, and Hudson Bates had 14 kills and nine digs. Graham Sheppard added 11 digs. First-team All-American Matt Zbyszewski was held to 20 kills and a .192 itting percentage. He did have 12 digs and four service aces.

The Patriots continue the road trip on Saturday night when they face Ball State at 7:30 p.m.