NEWARK, NJ – The George Mason men's volleyball team won in four sets (25-21, 25-15, 23-25, 25-20) at NJIT (7-6) to pick up its third win in a row.  Last night, the Patriots also beat #14 Princeton in four sets and are now 2-2 in the EIVA.

Jack Wilson led the Patriot offense with 14 kills and a .591 attack percentage against the Highlanders.  After finishing the match against Princeton with 21 kills, Paco Velez added 11 tonight.  Ryan Rosenmeier had some big plays for the Patriots and finished with five kills on just six attempts.  Radoslav Popov provided some defensive help with 10 digs in the match.  Hunter Stevens and Christian Malias each added six blocks as the Patriots (5-8) finished with 14.5 blocks as a team.

TJ Jurko and Kajetan Borecki led the NJIT attack with 11 and 10 kills, respectively.  Zak Robben provided a match-high 38 assists for the Highlanders.  Meanwhile, Oren Zyndorf led the defense with nine digs.

The first set was a tight one throughout and included eight tie scores and four lead changes.  The Patriots were tied at 20 before taking five of the next six point's thanks in part to a Velez kill and two Malias aces.  The Patriots jumped out to an early lead in the second set and didn't look back after taking seven of the first nine points.  Mason dominated the set and won it at 25-15 after one of Wilson's match-high 14 kills.

NJIT came out in the third set and had a comfortable lead at 15-9.  The Patriots were able to cut the lead down to just two at 23-21 and force a NJIT timeout.  The Highlanders stopped the Patriots comeback attempt short and went on to win the third set 25-23.  Mason and NJIT went back and forth for the first few points in the fourth set and were tied at seven.  NJIT kept it close, but the Green and Gold eventually went on to win the final set 25-20 to take the match.

The Patriots host an Alumni match against the current team at the RAC on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m. On Saturday, March 7, Mason hosts Ohio State to start off a nine-match homestand.