March 26, 2005

Box Score

The George Mason men's volleyball team improved to 16-7 on the season on Saturday and secured no worse than a third-place finish in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association as the Patriots defeated Springfield College, 30-20, 30-19, 30-26. Ten players appeared on the court for Mason as the Patriots dominated the No. 3 team in NCAA Division III.

Mason was threatened just once in the match as the Patriots fell behind 15-7 to start the final game before rolling off 23 of the match's final 34 points. Mason hit .393 in the match with 17 team blocks while holding Springfield to a .110 hitting percentage. The Patriots had their most impressive hitting performance of the season in the second game when Mason had 19 kills and committed just one error on 23 total attacks.

Springfield hit just -.111 in the first game and improved to just .080 in the second game, before rebounding in the third game to hit at a .267 clip. But Mason's Hudson Bates lifted the Patriots when they needed it most. Trailing 22-18, Bates served seven straight points to put Mason in control of the final game.

Bates finished with a match-high 16 kills while hitting .500. At one point midway through the second game, he had as many kills as the entire Springfield squad. Matt Steinfurth added 11 kills while Shaun Powell had nine. Dave Egan had 38 assists and four digs, Graham Sheppard had five digs and Kyle Swanson had a career-high 11 block

Springfield (6-11) was paced by Matt Smith who had eight kills on nine attacks with an .889 hitting percentage. He was Springfield's only player to hit better than .083 with more than five attacks. Eduardo Stawinski had a match-high six digs and Robert Soris had 26 assists.

Mason next plays on Saturday when it travels to No. 3 Penn State. That match is scheduled for 7 p.m.