ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - The George Mason men's volleyball team
came up on the short end of a closely-contested match with No. 15 Lewis as it
dropped a 3-2 decision to the Flyers on Saturday evening.
Lewis escaped with the win and set scores of 25-18, 21-25,
27-29, 25-21, 15-9 to improve to 4-5. With its first five set loss of the
season, Mason moved to 2-4 overall.
Playing to a 5-5 draw early in the opening set, Lewis took
the lead for good on a kill by James Hofmann. The Patriots remained within a
point up until 9-8, when the Flyers steadily built on their lead en route to
the 25-18 set victory.
The second set proved to be much closer, as the two teams battled
to a 20-20 draw before the Patriots closed the set with a 5-1 run to win,
25-21. A kill by senior Piotr Dabrowski and a Lewis attack error put Mason up
22-20 and forced the Flyers to call a timeout. Lewis got a point out of the
break on a service error by senior Javier Perez, but a kill by senior Andrew
Dentler, a service ace from senior Mark Jones and a Lewis attack error sealed
the set for the Patriots.
Dramatics unfolded late in the third set, as Mason rallied
from three points down at 23-20 to eventually earn a 29-27 set victory.
Trailing by three, the Patriots rattled off a 4-0 run to grab the lead (24-23)
and force a Lewis timeout. A Dentler kill started the rally, followed by Jones'
second service ace of the match and consecutive kills by Patrick Maloney. The
Flyers scored a point out of the timeout to tie the match at 24-24 and the two
squads battled down the stretch to a 27-27 draw before a kill by Shaun Sibley
and block assist by Jones, Max McFarland and Dabrowski gave Mason the set.
Close play continued in the fourth set, as the set played
out to a 16-16 draw midway through. However, the Flyers used a 3-0 run to grab
the lead for good and the Patriots were unable to pull closer than two points
down the stretch as they fell, 25-21, to send the match to a decisive fifth
set.
The Patriots assumed an early 2-0 lead in the fifth set, but
Lewis responded with a 3-0 run to assume a lead it didn't relinquish the
remainder of the set. Mason pulled to within one at 6-5 but it was all the closer
the squad got as the Flyers pulled away late for the 15-9 win.
Dentler led the Patriots with 19 kills, while Perez added 45
assists and three service aces. Defensively, Mason posted 10.5 team blocks, led
by a match-leading seven from Dabrowski.
Lewis had four players with double digit kills, paced by a
match-high 20 from Geoff Powell and 19 by Jay Petty, who also added three
service aces. BJ Boldog finished with a match-high 63 assists.
Mason returns to action next Saturday, traveling to face No.
11 Ohio State at 7:00 p.m.
