STANFORD, Calif. - Facing its first ranked opponent of the
season, the No. 14 George Mason men's volleyball team was able to steal a set
but couldn't hold off No. 3 Stanford in a 3-1 defeat on Saturday evening at the
Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal won the match with set scores of 25-18, 23-25,
25-16, 25-18. With the win, Stanford improved to 2-0 while the Patriots fell to
0-2.
Mason kept it close early in the first set, trailing by just
one point, 5-4, but a 7-1 Stanford run gave the Cardinal a 12-point lead the
Patriots were unable to overcome as they fell, 25-18.
Never trailing in the second set, Mason scored the first
point with a kill from senior Michael Kvidahl and pushed its lead to as many as
for points at 10-6. Mason led by as many as five points and owned a four point
lead (20-16) late in the set before Stanford pulled to within one point at
20-19. After a Mason timeout, Kvidahl again came up with a big kill, and the
Patriots held the Cardinal at bay down the stretch, including a set-ending kill
by Kvidahl on the Stanford serve to give Mason the 25-23 set win.
Hot hitting in the third and fourth sets helped propel the
Cardinal to set victories, as they hit .409 and .519 in those sets, respectively.
Stanford again used a run to put the Patriots down in the
third set, using a 6-1 advantage with the set tied at 6-6 to jump out to a 12-7
lead and eventually cruise to a 25-16 triumph.
Taking a 12-7 lead early in the fourth set, Stanford looked
poised to run away but the Patriots battled back. After a Mason timeout, the
Patriots went on a 7-3 run of their own to pull back to within a point at
15-14. However, the comeback fell short as the Cardinal closed the set with a
scoring advantage of 10-4 to win 25-18.
Kvidahl led Mason for the second-consecutive match, posting
12 kills. Andrew Dentler added 11 kills, while Javier Perez dished out 36
assists. Kvidahl and classmate Piotr Dabrowski both finished with four blocks.
Brian Cook had a game-high 19 kills for Stanford, Daniel
Tublin added 14 and James Shaw had 46 assists. Defensively, Eric Mochalski had
a game-high nine blocks.
The Patriots return to the court on Wednesday in their home
opener, hosting Grand Canyon at the RAC at 7:00 p.m.
