WHO: Men's Volleyball at Sacred Heart
WHERE: William H. Pitt Center, Fairfield, Conn.
FINAL SCORE: Mason 3, Sacred Heart 1
KEY PLAYERS: Paco Velez – 22 kills (match-high), 11 digs; Johnny Gomez – 17 digs; Bryant Ekstein – 5 kills, .556 hitting (team-high), 3 aces (career-high)

Fairfield, Conn. – George Mason University's men's volleyball team began April with a very important conference win, overcoming Sacred Heart in four sets on the road. After dropping a close first set, the Patriots dominated the next two and held on to their lead late in the fourth set to overcome the Pioneers in the first of two meetings between the teams this weekend.

MATCH NOTES

-Redshirt senior opposite hitter Paco Velez led all players on the court with 22 kills and added 11 digs to complete his second double-double of the season. Junior libero Johnny Gomez stole the show on the defensive end with a match-high 17 digs. Freshman middle blocker Bryant Ekstein returned to play for Mason after missing three matches and was flawless in attack to tie his career-high performance with 5 kills. The Virginia Beach, Va. native also recorded multiple aces (3) in a single match for the first time in his young career.

-The EIVA Offensive Player of the Week Austin Arcala was the only Pioneer to finish in double digits in attack with 10 kills, but he was also one of the three Sacred Heart players who hit in the negative (-.045). Taylor Bloomquist recorded nine kills on.500 hitting while Chris Johnston recorded five kills with a match-best .714 hitting performance. Joshua Ayzenberg impressed in defense with 14 digs.

-Sophomore setter Brian Negron's first of five kills on the night gave Mason an 8-4 lead in the opening set and forced Sacred Heart's head coach to call his first timeout of the contest. The Patriots retained their lead until 12-8, but a kill by Taylor Bloomquist started a 5-0 Sacred Heart run – which also featured two aces by Bloomquist – and gave the Pioneers their first lead at 13-12. After the timeout taken by head coach Jay Hosack, Mason came back to level terms eight times, but before the Patriots could regain the lead, Sacred Heart pulled away by two with another ace, courtesy of Arcala, 22-20. Another perfectly timed timeout allowed Mason to tie the score at 22 all with a block by redshirt senior middle blocker Dom Edgley and junior outside hitter Radoslav Popov, but Sacred Heart withstood the pressure-packed final minutes and won the set 25-23 with an attack error by Velez, which followed Bloomquist's fourth kill of the set.

-At the start of the second set, kills by Popov and Velez matched Mason's 8-4 lead from the first set. After that, consecutive attack errors by Sacred Heart gave the Patriots their largest lead of the match at 10-4, but Sacred Heart put together a string of points and halved Mason's cushion at 10-7. Arcala kept his team within three with a kill for 12-9, but it was all Mason after that point and the Patriots won nine of the next 11 points to increase their lead to double digits at 21-11 on Velez's 12^th kill of the contest. Popov increased the lead even further with a kill for 24-13, but loss of focus led to three consecutive errors by the Patriots before Velez put an end to the set at 25-16 and tied the match at 1-1.

-Following the 10-minute intermission, the third set began with four combined errors by both teams, three of them from serving. Ekstein aced right after and made it 4-1 Mason with the second of seven-straight Patriot points off the freshman's serving sequence, a run that forced Sacred Heart to exhaust both of its timeouts early in the set. Arcala earned Sacred Heart's first point of the set that was not off an error with a kill at 10-3. It was followed by a Mason attack error that got the Pioneers within six for the first of three occasions in the third set. The last such case was at 16-10, after which the Patriots' offense really kicked in and Mason outscored its opponent 9-4 to close out the set, including winning four-straight points on Negron's serving sequence at the very end to close the set with a dominant margin, 25-14.

-With the two teams tied at 2-2 early in the fourth set, Bloomquist and the rest of Sacred Heart's front-row players made it really hard for Mason to get the ball over the net and blocked three attack attempts, thus instigating a 5-0 Pioneer run, 7-2. A plethora of errors prevented Sacred Heart to hold the lead for longer or even increase it and Mason tied the score at 11 all, shortly before Popov put the Patriots back in the lead at 13-12 with an ace. A ball handling error by Eduardo Zardo handed Mason its first two-point lead of the set at 14-12 and although Sacred Heart came within one three times, a kill by Velez and another Pioneer error allowed the Patriots to pull up by three rather than dropping the lead, 18-15. Inspired by the three-point cushion, Hosack's men stayed aggressive and successful attacks by Velez, Negron and junior outside hitter Christian Malias increased Mason's advantage to five at 21-16. A kill by Bloomquist and three more by Arcala inspired a late run by the Pioneers which had Mason's lead reduced to only one at 22-21, but instead of calling for his second timeout, Hosack let his players fight out of the situation on their own. That is exactly what the Patriots did by winning three of the following four points. Malias put the final touch on the comeback with a block-out for 25-22 and 3-1 in Mason's favor, sending the Patriots to 5-4 in EIVA play and to .500 for the first time this season at 11-11 overall.

STAT BREAKDOW

-Mason hit .333 in the first three sets, but had nine errors in the fourth set alone, which brought the team's hitting percentage down to .304. Sacred Heart hit .114 and recorded 38 kills in the contest, 16 fewer than the Patriots.

-Led behind Gomez and Velez, Mason's defense recorded 47 digs, while the Pioneers only managed 35.

-The Patriots had the lion's share of the 10 service aces in the match, 6-4.

-Both teams had one solo block apiece, but two additional block assists in Sacred Heart's favor helped the Pioneers outblock Mason 10-9.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

“I thought that our team played with confidence and poise. It is tough to know that you have to win against a certain team, any team. We took that challenge head-on and ran with it.”

“The trick is to repeat the same level of play tomorrow night against the same team.” – Mason's head coach Jay Hosack

NEXT ON THE COURT

The Patriots and the Pioneers will meet once again tomorrow night. First serve is again at 7 p.m.