George Mason women's volleyball played a total of ten sets Friday splitting a pair of close contests on day one of the 38th Annual University of Delaware Invitational.

After starting the day off with a 3-2 loss to Princeton (25-20; 17-25; 25-16; 9-25; 10-15), the Patriots bounced back against Manhattan (6-3) improving to 2-7 on the season with a 3-2 (13-25; 25-23; 26-24; 15-25; 19-17) win over the Jaspers.

Mason struggled to get points in the first set, siding out just nine times out of 24 attempts (37%) as they would drop the set 25-13. From there, though, the Patriots got on a roll taking back-to-back sets for the first time all season. The Jaspers battled back in the fourth set, tying the match at 2-2 and sending the Patriots to a fifth set for the third straight match.

“When we played intense, good things happened,” head coach Pat Kendrick said. “We showed a great deal of character when the match was on the line, especially against Manhattan.”

The fifth set would prove to be a battle in itself with the three lead changes and 10 ties before the Patriots would finish things off for their second win of the season. Tiffany Clarke led the way with 13 kills in the match to go along with eight blocks while freshman Kelly Schaller contributed 22 digs and 19 assists.

The Patriots return to the court Saturday when they take on Delaware at noon.

“Tomorrow's match against Delaware will just be another opportunity for us to continue working on our consistency.”