March 21, 2009

Box Score

FAIRFAX, Va. - George Mason (9-9) suffered a 3-2 setback to the Ball State Cardinals (13-7) in the annual Uvaldo Acosta "UV" Memorial Men's Volleyball Match on Saturday evening at the Field House. Sophomore libero Eric Lucas led all players with 17 digs in the match.

Mason got off to a strong start in the contest, hitting .346 while cruising to a 30-19 win in the opening set. The Patriots had an opportunity to take a 2-0 lead but were unable to convert on a pair of set points in the second set. Ball State staved off set points for the Patriots at 29-28 and 30-29 and took the final three points for a 32-30 win to even the score at one.

The Cardinals went on to take the third set 30-27 before Mason bounced back with a 30-28 win in the fourth to force a deciding fifth set. In the fifth, Ball State took an early 4-0 lead on three hitting errors by the Patriots paired with a Dominic Spadavecchio service ace and never looked back on its way to a 15-6 win and a 3-2 victory in the match.

Three players reached double-digit kills for Mason. Senior Kyle Gramit led the Patriots with 19 kills, two aces, six digs and seven blocks. Senior Brandon McLaughlin and junior Luke Maloney both finished with 10 kills.

Ball State used a balanced attack to earn its 13th win of the season. Five players reached double-digit kills for the Cardinals, including Matt Sprague (19), Todd Chamberlain (15), J.D. Gasparovic (13), Andy Nelson (11) and Spadavecchio (10). Setter Ethan Pheister led all players with 58 assists and three aces.

Mason held a special ceremony between the second and third sets of the match to honor the 25th anniversary of the 1984 team's third-place finish at the NCAA Division I Men's Volleyball Championships. The ceremony featured many of the stars, as well as the entire coaching staff, of that year's team. During the 1984 season, Mason defeated perennial powerhouse Penn State three times, including the championship match of the East Coast Volleyball League Tournament, to advance to the NCAA Division I Men's Volleyball Championships for the first time in school history. Despite losing to Pepperdine in the national semifinals at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, the Patriots rebounded with a straight-set victory over Ball State in the consolation match to take third place at the national tournament.

In addition to the ceremony for the 1984 team, Saturday's match also honored the memory of Patriot men's volleyball legend Uvaldo Acosta, who made his mark on George Mason University as both a collegiate athlete and a coach. Acosta passed away at the age of 32 in a tragic swimming accident on a team trip to Hawaii during the 1998 season while serving as the head coach of the George Mason men's volleyball team.

George Mason travels to Romeoville, Ill. for its next match against the Lewis Flyers on Thursday, March 26. First serve is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.