The George Mason men's volleyball team dropped a close first set but remained undiscouraged as they pulled together and overcame a powerful nationally-ranked Lewis squad, beating the 12^th -ranked Flyers, 3-1. Michael Kvidahl had 18 kills and 13 digs and Mark Jones added 23 kills as the Patriots beat the Flyers, 27-29, 25-23, 25-17, 25-22.

Mason got 13 digs from Dave Lucas and 42 assists from Brandon Joyner as the, and Kvidahl and Jones, helped overcome terrific matches from Matt Gallik and Aaron Flick. Gallik had 16 kills with no errors, hitting .696, and Flick had 13 kills and no errors, hitting .591. Both teams hit .328 in the match as the Patriots improved to 14-8 while Lewis fell to 15-9.

The first set took an interesting turn just three points in when Charles Swingle was hurt and had to leave the match. That forced setter Brandon Joyner to move to middle blocker with Javier Perez entering the match at setter. Despite the lineup change, or perhaps inspired by it, the Patriots were exceptional in building a 13-6 lead on the Flyers. Lewis rallied back using an 8-3 run to make it a two-point contest at 16-14.

The Patriots answered with a 7-4 run of its own to go ahead 23-18, but they couldn't put Lewis away. The Flyers shook off two set points to make it 24-24 and with the score tied at 27-27, Ian Karbiener and Aaron Flick had back-to-back kills to close out the set, 29-27. Lewis hit .519 in the set as Flick had six kills and no errors on eight attacks while Matt Gallik had six kills and no errors on seven attacks. Mason had four service aces in the set while Lewis had six service errors.

Neither team could get a cushion in the second set. The largest lead either team had was four points when Lewis went ahead 16-12. The Patriots proceeded to win four of the next five points to make it 17-16 and they eventually tied the match at 19-19. It stayed within a point until, tied at 23-23, Mark Jones had back-to-back kills to even the match at 1-1. Michael Kvidahl had four kills and no errors on nine attacks in the set while Jones had eight kills as the Patriots upped their hitting percentage to .351 in the set.

The third set was all Mason the Patriots outhit Lewis .324-.121 as Kvidahl had six kills and no errors on nine attacks to pace the Patriots. The match was tight at 12-11 when the Patriots got a kill from Kvidahl who then proceeded to serve five straight points to put Mason ahead 17-12. The Patriots kept a cushion of at least four points the rest of the way as they cruised to a 25-17 set win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

It seemed that the match was destined for a fifth set, at least after the first 19 points of the fourth set. The Patriots fell behind 12-5 when Mason had to use its second timeout of the set. The Patriots slowly closed the gap from there, first making it 14-10, then 15-12, and finally, trailing 17-15, Kvidahl went to the service line again and put up four straight serves as the Patriots took an 18-17 lead. With the set tied at 19-19, Mason went on a 4-1 run to take a 23-20 edge and from there, they were able to serve out the match for the 3-1 win.

The Patriots will return next weekend when they play at Penn State on Saturday at 7 p.m.