April 29, 2010

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Despite double-doubles by junior Brandon Joyner and freshman Michael Kvidahl, the third-seeded George Mason Patriots were unable to overcome the second-seeded Princeton Tigers on Thursday evening at Rec Hall in University Park, Pa., falling by a final score of 3-1 in an EIVA Semifinal match. The semifinals and championship matches of the tournament are being hosted by top-seeded Penn State, the regular season champion of the EIVA Tait Division and 12th-ranked team in the nation.

The Patriots appeared in the semifinals of the conference tournament for the 10th consecutive season but were unable to overcome the Tigers to advance to Saturday's championship match. Mason had a tough time with Princeton all season long, with an 0-3 record against the Tigers. Princeton downed Mason 3-2 on April 2 and 3-0 on April 11 to hold a 2-0 record against the Patriots entering tonight's match.

Mason took an early 1-0 lead after cruising to a 30-22 victory in the opening set. The Patriots lost the first two points of the set and trailed 3-1 after four points. A kill by senior Ben Nichols on the next point sparked the Patriots to a 5-0 run that gave Mason a 6-3 lead. After taking the lead, the Patriots never trailed and led by as many as nine points in the set. George Mason hit .294 as a team while holding the Tigers to a hitting percentage of .044 as a unit.

In the second set, the Patriots were down to their final point at 29-27 following a kill by Princeton freshman Michael Dye. After Dye's kill, Mason mounted a comeback with back-to-back kills by Kvidahl to tie the score at 29. On the next point, a kill by Pat Schwagler gave Princeton another set point at 30-29. This time, the Tigers took advantage of the opportunity and evened the match at 1-1 when Carl Hamming recorded a solo block of Kvidahl's attempt on the next point.

Following the second-set victory, the Tigers went on to take the third set 30-23 and the fourth set 30-26 to win the match and advance to the conference championship. Schwagler and Hamming both recorded double-doubles for a Princeton team that improved to 15-9 overall with the win. Hamming posted match highs of 19 kills and 19 digs. Schwagler finished with 10 kills and 15 digs.

Kvidahl led Mason with 13 kills and 10 digs. Joyner paced the Patriots with 38 assists and 18 digs. The senior class of Ryan Kwiatkowski, Luke Maloney and Nichols all donned the Green and Gold for the final time in the match. Kwiatkowski finished with four kills and an ace, Maloney finished with 10 kills, five digs and four blocks, and Nichols recorded nine kills and six blocks.

The Patriots, who wrap up the season with an 8-19 overall record, advanced to the EIVA Semifinals with a 3-0 sweep of the sixth-seeded Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders in the quarterfinal round of the tournament on Saturday, April 24 at the RAC. Sophomore Lance Rogers was named to the EIVA Championship All-Tournament Team for his play throughout the tournament.

Saturday's EIVA Championship match will feature the top two seeds in the conference in Princeton and host Penn State. The winner of Saturday's championship match will earn the EIVA's automatic berth in the NCAA Division I Men's Volleyball Championships in Stanford, Calif. on May 6-8.