April 15, 2006
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FAIRFAX, Va. - No. 13 George Mason closed out its regular season schedule with a four-game victory over the top-ranked team in Division III men's volleyball, the Juniata Eagles, on Saturday in the UV Memorial Match at John Linn Memorial Gym. With the victory, the Patriots improve to 22-5 on the season, 11-1 in EIVA Tait Division play, and a perfect 12-0 in home matches.
The Eagles threatened to push the match to five games, taking a five-point lead at 26-21 late in a fourth game that featured six ties and four lead changes. An attack error by sophomore Matt Fritz followed by a double block by senior Matt Steinfurth and redshirt senior Bryan Newcomb brought the Patriots within three at 26-23. Juniata pushed the lead back to four on junior Glenn DeHaven's kill. Mason countered with a kill by redshirt senior Shaun Powell off a nice feed from Newcomb. A kill by junior Nate Ocasio once again put the Eagles up four, but the Patriots pulled to within two on a service error by junor Ryan McGinley, who subbed into the game to take the serve, and another kill by Powell. A kill by senior Cordt Withum put the Eagles up 29-26 with three chances to close out the game. The Patriots refused to lose; however, and another kill by Powell followed by an attack error by Ocasio caused head coach Ken Shibuya to take a timeout for the Eagles to regroup. Following the timeout, Mason tied the score up when junior R.J. Goubeaux and Powell blocked Ocasio's attack, and the Patriots took a one-point lead on freshman Kyle Gramit's ace. A kill by Goubeaux closed out the game and the match.
Juniata's attack came out looking for the upset, hitting .361 in the first game, and winning by a final score of 30-27. Mason hit only .200 in the loss. The team's fortunes reversed in the next two games; however, as the Patriots won the second game 30-19 and the third game 30-22. Mason's attack turned it up in the two victories, outhitting the Eagles .424 to .129 in the second game and .417 to .207 in the third game.
The win closes out the regular season and home careers of Newcomb, Powell and Steinfurth. Newcomb added 40 assists to his season total to close out the season with 1,081 assists, ranking the Richmond, Va. native fourth in the single-season record book at Mason and third in career assists during the rally-scoring era. Powell, who led the team with 19 kills in the match, closes out his career in front of a home crowd that saw him rise to the top of Mason's record book in career kills and aces in the rally-scoring era, and rank second in digs and fourth in blocks. Steinfurth, who leads the nation in blocks, added six more to his total in the win. He set a new single-season record at Mason with 172 blocks this season, and for his career he ranks first in blocks, fourth in kills and fourth in hitting percentage during the rally-scoring era.
The Patriots head into the EIVA Conference Tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Penn State having won their final six matches to close out the regular season. Penn State and George Mason had identical 11-1 conference records but Penn State received the No. 1 seed in the tournament based on head-to-head games won. The Patriots split two matches with the Nittany Lions during the regular season, with Penn State defeating Mason in three games on Feb. 25 in University Park, Pa. and Mason winning in four games on March 25 in Fairfax, Va. Penn State will host the semifinals and final on April 27 and 29 by virtue of being the top seed. As the top two seeds, both Penn State and George Mason will receive a bye to the semifinal round. Mason will face either East Stroudsberg, Juniata or St. Francis in the semifinal round on April 27 depending on the results of earlier matches in the tournament.
