Feb. 13, 2009

Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - No. 11 George Mason swept Springfield College in the semifinal round of the Volleyball Hall of Fame/Morgan Classic Tournament on Friday evening at Blake Arena in Springfield, Mass. The victory propels the Patriots into the championship match for the second straight season. Mason will take on No. 13 UC San Diego for the tournament title tomorrow at 8 p.m.

Junior outside hitter Ben Nichols hammered out a match-best 16 kills, hitting .357, to lead the Patriots to victory. Mason took the three games by scores of 30-28, 30-22, 30-24 to improve to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in EIVA Tait Division matches. With the loss, the Pride evened its record at 5-5 overall and 1-4 in EIVA Tait Division play.

In the opening game, the Pride took an early 11-4 lead, taking advantage of several George Mason errors. Springfield College went on to lead by as much as seven, 16-9, after an AJ Nally kill, but Mason stormed back, tying the game at 20 following a kill by senior opposite hitter Kyle Gramit. The teams traded points until Andy Sipe tied the game at 28 with a kill. With the score knotted, George Mason used a Ryan Kwiatkowski kill and a Pride attack error to take the opening frame, 30-28, and grab the early momentum.

George Mason owned the second frame as it never trailed en route to a 30-22 victory. As a team, the Patriots posted a .400 hitting percentage and used four aces to power themselves to a two-game advantage.

Springfield seemed determined to get a game back in the third as it used a double block from Nally and Sipe to grab a 20-18 lead. After a Patriot error gave the hosts a three-point advantage, George Mason posted a 4-0 run to grab a 22-21 lead. A triple block from Sipe, Nally, and Eric Shoemaker tied the game at 22, but the Patriots finished the game on an 8-2 run to complete the three-game sweep.

Gramit finished the match with 13 kills and two blocks. Brandon McLaughlin added six kills, four digs, and five blocks, while Kwiatkowski directed the offense with 37 assists to go along with seven kills, hitting .875. Eric Lucas posted a match-best 12 digs in the victory.

Nally led Springfield with a team-best 12 kills to go along with six digs and four blocks. Ryan Fredrickson added six kills, while Cal Palumbo tacked on five kills and three blocks. Shoemaker dished out 30 assists and finished with a team-best five blocks. Ruben Fernandez notched eight digs in just two games of work.

In the first semifinal match of the evening, Will Ehrman exploded for 18 kills, hitting .571 in the process, to lead the University of California-San Diego Tritons to a 3-1 victory over Saint Francis of Pennsylvania. Game scores were 30-20, 33-35, 30-27, 30-18.