Courtesy of Teodor Handarov 

FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason men's volleyball team had a shaky start, but got back on its feet and ultimately won its match against Grand Canyon University in four sets (20-25, 28-26, 25-17, 25-19) on Thursday night at the RAC.

Redshirt sophomore Jack Wilson led Mason's attack with 17 kills and five serve aces, while sophomore Radoslav Popov and redshirt junior Paco Velez also finished in double digits with 12 and 10, respectively. The last two also put in solid defensive performances, with Velez's 11 digs leading the Patriots on the night, while Popov finished with 10. Freshman setter Brian Negron registered 42 assists. Shalev Saada led Grand Canyon with 14 kills, just two more than Tanner Maxwell, who also finished in double digits. Gerrard Lipscombe led his team with nine digs.

The Antelopes (13-14) had a great start to the match and won the first four points, which gave them a comfortable lead. The Patriots (10-11) were struggling to build momentum early on and Grand Canyon retained their lead until 10-6. A serve error by the Antelopes and a kill by Wilson cut the visitors' advantage in half, but the momentum was quickly neutralized with three consecutive Antelope points. A kill by sophomore Graham Gresham for 14-10 and an ace by Negron for 18-14 got Mason within four later in the set, but Grand Canyon retained control of the set and even managed to tie their highest lead of the game at 23-17. From that point on, two consecutive errors by the Antelopes and an ace by Wilson to make it 23-20 started a final push for the Patriots, but Grand Canyon took a quick timeout that allowed the team to gather its thoughts and close the set at 25-20.

The second set saw a similar start and even though Grand Canyon did not repeat its significant run from the first set, slowly but surely the Antelopes accumulated an 11-5 lead. At that point, the scenery on the court changed and the Patriots began playing the volleyball that beat Ball State and Princeton earlier in the season. Back-to-back aces later on brought the Patriots within two points at 13-11 and, from the way the team was playing, soon the inevitable happened and Velez tied the score for the first time in the match with a kill at 16. To make the euphoria in the gym complete, Negron served an ace on the following play to give Mason the lead and force Grand Canyon into a timeout. After the teams came out of the huddle, the Patriots' lead was canceled three times before Wilson finally gave Mason some breathing space at 21-19 with back-to-back kills. An attack error by Grand Canyon increased the lead to three after the resulting timeout, but the Antelopes managed to tie the score at 22. The first set point came for the Antelopes at 24-23 off a Mason error and repeated at 25-24 and 26-25. Kills by Popov, however, neutralized all three chances for Grand Canyon to close the set and the Patriots won the set 28-26 on his serving sequence after two consecutive set errors from the Antelopes.

Mason again lost consecutive points in the beginning of the third set, but this time reacted quickly with a 4-0 run to take an early 4-2 lead. Although the Antelopes came back on level terms two plays later, another 7-2 run by the Patriots forced a Grand Canyon timeout at 11-6. The Antelopes went on a 4-0 run themselves to cut the lead to 13-10 later, but another Mason run on Gresham's serving sequence gave the Patriots a seven-point lead at 17-10. This lead was decreased by two immediately after the Grand Canyon timeout that followed, but this time the Antelopes did not have strength for more than that. Luck was also on Mason's side later in the set when following a last-second dig by Wilson the ball caught the Antelope players by surprise when it went over the net and fell on the ground, resulting into a Mason point. Mason's highest lead of the set reached six at 24-18 and moments later a kill by Gresham closed the set at 25-19 and gave the Patriots a 2-1 set advantage.

The fourth set started with a long rally that featured three Mason digs before Wilson finally got the kill for the lead. An ace by Velez followed and added to Mason's psychological advantage early on, which was later materialized to a 7-1 lead on a block by Negron. The Antelopes called a timeout, but that failed to kill the Patriots momentum and a kill by Popov increased the lead to eight at 10-2. A momentary slump by Mason allowed Grand Canyon to go on a 4-1 run and get within five at 11-6. However, a block by senior Hunter Stevens and two consecutive aces by Wilson got the Patriots cruising again with a nine-point lead at 18-9, and soon after an ace by Stevens increased the lead to double digits at 20-10. The Patriots eventually went on to win after a block-out by Wilson at 25-17, which marked the second occasion this season that Mason won after dropping the first set.

The Patriots take on the Antelopes again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. before traveling to Harvard and Sacred Heart the following weekend.