ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The George Mason men's volleyball team dropped its second match in a row to a ranked opponent on Saturday evening, losing to No. 7 Lewis University, 3-1, at the Neil Carey
Arena in Romeoville, Ill.
The Flyers won the match with set scores of 25-17, 22-25,
25-19, 25-18.
Mason (3-4) scored the first points of the match off of a kill
by redshirt senior outside hitter Joe Norton, but failed to lead the first set
after that point. The Patriots played Lewis (6-2) close, remaining within two
points and eventually tying the set at 11-11. Lewis then went on a 5-1 run to
assume a 16-12 advantage. Mason scored the next point, but the Flyers went on
another 5-1 run to push its lead to 21-13, eventually winning the set by a
score of 25-17.
The second set was closely contested early on with several
lead changes, but the Patriots finally used a 5-1 run of their own with the
score tied at 6-6 to take an 11-7 lead. However, Lewis found its way back into
the set, tying it at 16-16. Mason gained momentum on the next point and didn't trail
the remainder of the set as it went on for the 25-2 set victory.
Despite several ties early on in the third set, Mason was unable
to take the lead, with the Flyers winning the set by a score of 25-18. It was
the same story in the fourth set, as Mason fell behind early and couldn't recover,
leaving Lewis with a 25-18 triumph.
For the match, Lewis posted 58 kills compared to 38 for
Mason. The Flyers also held a 10-2 advantage in service aces and hit .404
percent, limiting the Patriots to a .230 hitting percentage.
Leading the way for Mason was junior outside hitter Mark
Jones, who had 13 kills. Norton added 11 kills and redshirt sophomore Pete
Cuppernull had 33 assists. Freshman middle blocker Hunter Stevens paced the
Patriots with four blocks.
Lewis' Jay Petty posted a game-high 20 kills, while
teammates Ian Karbiener and Greg Petty finished with 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
BJ Boldog had a game-high 51 assists, and Matt Gallick had a game-high 6
blocks.
The Patriots return to action next Saturday as they travel
to face Juniata at 7:00 pm.
