WHO: Men's Volleyball vs Saint Francis (Pa.) @ 2016 EIVA Championship
WHERE: Rec Hall, State College, Pa.
FINAL SCORE: Mason 3, Saint Francis 1
KEY PLAYERS: Jack Wilson – 22 kills (match-high), .417 hitting; Brian Negron – 38 assists, 5 kills, .667 hitting; Johnny Gomez – 20 digs (career-high)

Photo Credit: Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

State College, Pa. – George Mason University's men's volleyball team is the 2016 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association champion! In the same arena where it lost last year's final, Mason demonstrated maturity and composure to prevail over Saint Francis (Pa.) in four sets for its first conference title since 1988.

MATCH NOTES

-Redshirt junior captain Jack Wilson was outstanding in attack for the newly crowned champions and finished with a match-high 22 kills while hitting .417. The Patriots did an outstanding job in spreading the offensive duties in the match and four additional players had at least five kills – redshirt senior middle blocker Dom Edgley (8), junior outside hitters Christian Malias and Radoslav Popov (6 apiece), and sophomore setter Brian Negron, who ran the show with 38 assists. Negron also contributed 5 kills with a match-best .667 attack percentage. Mason's defense deserves just as much credit for the triumph, and the star there once again was junior libero Johnny Gomez, who couldn't pick a better time to tie his career-high achievement with a 20-dig performance. The Indialantic, Fla. native, who leads the nation in digs, topped off the great night with 3 assists.

-Saint Francis had two players in double digits – Jeff Hogan with 16 kills and Stephen Brasswell with 11 kills. Setter Daniel Ford finished the memorable Red Flash season with a double double, adding a team-high 10 digs to his match-high 44 assists.

-Mason went into the match with more confidence and took the first two points with a kill by Popov and a solo block by Edgley. That lead doubled at 6-2 when Wilson recorded the first service ace in the match and the Patriots never looked back. Saint Francis only managed to cut the lead to two at 8-6, only to see Mason respond with five-straight points. Over the course of the opening set, head coach Jay Hosack's men hit .526 as a team and finished the set on a 4-0 run that included two kills and a solo block by Malias for the final score line of 25-14.

-Wilson, who led Mason with five kills in the opening set, committed a rare error to allow Saint Francis to grab its first lead of the night at 2-1 in the second set, but it was immediately wasted with a service error by the Red Flash. Neither team could pull away until 5-5, but then Saint Francis went on a 6-1 run to grab a 12-6 run and force Hosack's first timeout of the match. A drop in Mason's attack efficiency prevented the Patriots to seriously threaten their opponent's lead, coming the closest at 18-15 on an ace by redshirt senior opposite hitter Paco Velez. The second occasion in which Mason was within three in the second set was at 19-16 as a result of Mike Marshman's service error, but the Red Flash finished the set  with two blocks to top off a 6-1 run to tie the match with 25-17 in the second set.

-An ace by Malias gave the Patriots a two-point lead at 5-3 in the third set while a block by Popov and Edgley on Marshman doubled the lead at 8-4. This time the Red Flash shook off the initial shock and came back within one at 10-9, but three errors by the team that appeared in its first championship match in program history allowed the more experienced Mason team to pull away once again, 14-10. Back-to-back kills by redshirt freshman middle blocker Garrett Kollar started a run by Mason that forced a Saint Francis timeout at 20-13 and continued afterwards with an attack error by Hogan, 21-13. It took the Patriots a while as Saint Francis showed good defensive perseverance toward the end of the set, but ultimately Hosack's men came out on top at the end of the set, 25-18.

-A kill by Brandon Buck gave Saint Francis a 2-1 lead in the fourth set, but solid side-out play by Mason did not allow the Red Flash to build on it. In fact, the second-seeded Patriots once again were first team to pull away by two at 11-9 thanks to big plays from Edgley, who first picked up his seventh kill of the match and immediately after assisted Malias for another block on Marshman. Kills by Buck and Marshman then brought the Red Flash on level terms twice at 11-11 and 12-12, but Mason won seven of the next nine points – with the help of two kills and four assists by all-tournament selection Negron – to grab a five-point lead at 19-14 and begin tasting the triumph. Mason kept cool-headed for the remainder of the contest and 11 plays later the dream became a reality and the Patriots ended the 28-year trophy drought when Malias buried the ball with a diagonal shot for the final kill of the 2016 EIVA Championship, 25-19.

STAT BREAKDOWN

-In the closely contested final, Saint Francis had one kill more than Mason, 50-49, but could not match the Patriots' hitting efficiency of .314.

-Behind Gomez's repeated career night, Mason outdug the Red Flash 41-29.

-Keith Kegerreis from Saint Francis led all players on the court with two solo blocks, while all-tournament selection Edgley and Malias picked one apiece for the Patriots. Ultimately, the teams were even in contribution at the net, 7-7.

-Mason had double the joy from behind the service line – the Patriots not only doubled the Red Flash in aces, 4-2, but were also the team with fewer service errors, 13-6.

NEXT ON THE COURT

Now that it is back in the NCAA tournament, Mason will have to wait until Selection Sunday to find out its opponent in the six-team tournament.