Courtesy of Teodor Handarov

FAIRFAX, Va - Coming off of last week's spring break, the George Mason men's volleyball team got back to action in the best way possible, by sweeping the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in three sets (25-22, 25-23, 25-16) on Friday night in the RAC gym.

Three Mason players carried the team's attacking load on the night – sophomore Radoslav Popov, redshirt sophomore Jack Wilson, and redshirt junior Paco Velez, all of whom ended the match with 13 kills. Much credit for that goes to the freshman setter Brian Negron, who registered 40 assists. On the other hand, only Julio Fontanet finished with double digits for the Bulldogs, registering 10 kills. Fontanet also stood out in defense, as well, leading his team with nine digs. In contrast, Mason split the team's 22 digs in the match among six players, none of them having more than five.

Senior Hunter Stevens gave the Patriots (6-9) an early 2-1 lead in the first set with a kill, but Colegio won the following three points, which switched the momentum in their favor. Their lead reached three points twice – at 6-3 and 14-11 – but the Patriots went on a run in mid-set to tie the game at 15 with a kill by Wilson. The visitors' coach tried to kill the momentum by calling a timeout, but this did not prevent Mason from getting back in front at 17-16 with a kill by Popov. The Bulldogs responded quickly and regained the lead on several occasions, the last late in the set at 22-21, which forced coach Fred Chao to use his first timeout. Coming out of it, the Patriots did not allow their opponent to win a point, first taking the lead on an attack error by Colegio, and later closing the set at 25-22 with a kill by Velez.

It was the captain Stevens again, this time with a block, who gave Mason its first lead of the second set, again at 2-1. This time the Patriots built up on that lead and a kill by Velez gave them a three-point lead at 7-4, but it wasn't long before it grew to four at 10-6. The Patriots continued to dominate and a block-out from Wilson gave them the highest-lead of the set at 19-13, to which Colegio responded by calling a timeout. The visiting team came out of it inspired and went on an impressive 5-0 run, which all of the sudden made it a one-point set at 19-18. Wilson ended that run with a kill after a Mason timeout, but Colegio tied the score at 21. There were two more ties after that as the teams were exchanging points in the closing stages, but it was Mason who managed to score two consecutive points first – a kill by Velez and a block by sophomore Graham Gresham – to win the second set 25-23.

UPR-Mayaguez won the first two points of the third set, but Mason tied it right away with an ace by Velez.  A block by Stevens gave Mason the lead on the following play and the Patriots never looked back. An ace by Velez increased Mason's lead to three points at 12-9, and another one by Wilson later in the set doubled that lead at 16-10. Capitalizing on Mason errors, Colegio went on a 3-0 run that made the score 17-14, but recently introduced substitute Ryan Rosenmeier registered a kill and a block assist on back-to-back plays to restore a five-point lead for the Patriots. This started a 7-0 run for the Patriots, whose lead reached double digits at 24-14 after an ace by Negron. Then, it took the Patriots three attempts, but they finally closed the set and match at 25-16 on a block-out by Popov.

The second match of the weekend series between the two teams is on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the RAC gym.