Feb. 5, 2005
Box Score
It wasn't George Mason's best effort of the young season, but it was a good enough effort as the men's volleyball team shook off first-game rust and came up big on the big points, defeating New York University, 27-30, 30-22, 30-28, 30-28 in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association action in Farifax, Va.
The 15th-ranked Patriots (4-0, 2-0) entered the day having hit better than .300 in all four of its matches this season but they failed to come close to that mark on Saturday. The Patriots hit .000 in the first game, as the Violets (2-3, 0-1) took advantage of Mason's hitting miscues to put the Patriots in an early hole. Mason fought out of it though, behind two of its more experience players.
Shaun Powell, who has been phenomenal all season came up with a game-high 18 kills while hitting .324 and Dave Egan had the kind of all-around game that players often dream of. Egan finished the match with game highs in assists, digs and total blocks. He had 45 assists, nine digs, eight total blocks (three solo, five assists) and six kills while hitting .300. He also had a service ace.
Egan found Powell repeatedly in the second, third and fourth games, as the Patriots combined for 44 kills and just 21 errors in the final three games. Also coming up big for Mason was its defense. The Patriots finished the game with 12.5 blocks to NYU's eight and Mason had 31 digs to NYU's 24.
The Violets were paced by Macnair Sillick's 11 kills while Jonathan Wintermeyer added eight kills on a .333 hitting percentage. Marc Horowitz had 25 assists while Leeor Alon had 22 asssits.
For Mason, Felix Campos had nine kills, seven digs and five service aces while Powell added five digs and two service aces to his 18 kills. Kyle Swanson had yet another strong outing at middle blocker with six kills and no errors on nine attacks.
The Patriots will be in action twice this week as they take on Juniata, the top-ranked team in Division III, on Wednesday, and Ball State, a team Mason knocked out of the nationally rankings a few weeks ago, on Saturday.
