The George Mason men's volleyball team encountered a bulldozer on Saturday night and it came in the form of Sacred Heart. The Pioneers hit an astonishing .438 in a 3-0 win over the Patriots including an eye-popping .577 first set as they beat Mason, 25-21, 25-20, 28-26.

The Patriots hit .325 in the match, had more digs and blocks and fewer service errors than Sacred Heart but the Pioneers seemed to put every ball on the ground as Bradley Borsay had 21 kills and hit .655 while Enzo Mackenzie added 10 kills while hitting .438. The Pioneers improved to 5-2 on the year. Mark Jones had 17 kills and hit .323 but no other Mason player managed more than five kills. The Patriots fell to 8-3 on the year.

The first set wasn't much of a contest as Sacred Heart turned a 4-4 set into a 19-13 lead. From there the Pioneers had no trouble closing things out as they had kills on 18 of 26 attacks in the set with just three errors. The second set held more promise as Mason stayed close throughout as Sacred Heart needed to win four of the final five points to take the 2-0 lead.

The third set saw Mason refuse to go away. The Patriots fell behind 7-2 and trailed 15-10 and 19-14 before rallying around Piotr Dabrowski 's serve. The Patriots used an 8-1 run to go ahead 22-20 and put the Pioneers on their heels. But Sacred Heart extended the match, first with ties at 23-23, then 24-24 and finally 25-25. The Patriots picked up their first set point at 26-25 but Sacred Heart answered the challenge, winning the final three points to end the contest.

The Patriots will play two more road matches before returning home as they are at Princeton on Friday at 7 p.m. then at Rutgers-Newark on Saturday at Noon.