WHO: Women's Volleyball vs. Bucknell @ Valley Forge Sports Penn Invitational Tournament
WHERE: The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pa.
FINAL SCORE: Mason 3, Bucknell 2
KEY PLAYERS: Mikala Wells – 20 kills, 16 digs (career-high), 3 blocks (career-high); Tiffany Clarke – 14 kills, 5 blocks; Sydney Fanoga – 13 kills, 5 blocks; Catie Espinoza – 19 digs; Kelly Schaller – 41 assists

WHO: Women's Volleyball at Penn @ Valley Forge Sports Penn Invitational Tournament
WHERE: The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pa.
FINAL SCORE: Penn 3, Mason 1
KEY PLAYERS: Mikala Wells – 16 kills, 11 digs; Tiffany Clarke – 15 kills, 3 blocks; Bailey Williams – 11 kills, 2 blocks, 1 service ace; Kelly Schaller – 49 assists, 2 service aces; Catie Espinoza – 23 digs

PHILADELPHIA – It took a while for George Mason University's women's volleyball team to get going on Saturday morning, but when it did, Mason was impossible to stop and orchestrated a two-set comeback against Bucknell on the second day of the Penn Invitational.

KEY NOTES OF THE DAY

-Freshman outside hitter Mikala Wells made it clear that the sub-par performance she had against Lafayette on Friday was nothing more than an anomaly and proved it with two huge performances against Bucknell and Penn. Wells was the main weapon in the Patriots' attack and led the team with 20 kills in the morning win and with 16 kills in the defeat to the Quakers, but had big defensive numbers as well, including a career-high 16 digs in the five-set thriller against the Bison. This, however, had no negative effect over the consistently impressive performances of sophomore libero Catie Espinoza, who had 19 digs in the morning contest and 23 digs in the afternoon.

-Senior opposite hitter Tiffany Clarke and junior middle blocker Sydney Fanoga also recorded double digits in attack in both matches, while freshman outside hitter Bailey Williams did that only against Penn with 11 kills.

-Mason took the lead in both of the first two sets against the Bison and remained competitive for the opening minutes, but then Bucknell managed to gradually pull away and win both sets by comfortable margin. The Bison's first set point in the opening set came at 24-14, but back-to-back kills from Wells prevented a double-digit deficit for the Patriots in what was her first spark of brilliance despite Mason being held to a negative hitting percentage in the set.

-A block by Clarke and freshman middle blocker Kelly Fagan started the second set positively for Mason and was followed by a kill from the senior that made it 2-0 Mason early on. That was followed by a 6-0 Bucknell run and although Mason came within one at 6-5, the Patriots won only two of the following 11 points to be further in trouble at 15-7. Head coach Jackie Simpson-Kirr attempted to change the outlook of the set with a setter change and introduced junior Kelly Schaller. Mason improved its attack efficiency and scored a point for every one by the Bison for the remainder of the set, which was only enough for a slightly more respectable score line, 25-17.

-Bucknell looked as the better side in the beginning of the third set as well and took a 5-2 lead, but that is when the Patriots' morning alarm went off. A Fanoga kill made it 5-3 and Wells needed no help in blocking Bridgette Holland for 5-4, which turned out to be the Bison's last lead of the set. A kill by Wells gave Mason its first lead at 6-5 and the Patriots had no intention of looking back, forcing Bison timeouts at 11-8 and at 16-10. Mason went on to record 19 kills in the third set alone and led by as many as nine points twice before closing the set comfortably at 25-19.

-Similar to the second set, the Patriots had the better of the two teams' starts but soon found themselves trailing by as many as three, 8-5. Simpson-Kirr gathered her team in huddle immediately and the timeout had an immediate impact as Mason went on a 5-0 run largely helped by Schaller's serving, 10-8. Bucknell's coaching staff waited out to see how the Bison will respond to that and by the time a timeout was called following a kill by junior outside hitter Jordan Glass, Bucknell trailed by three at 14-11. In the remaining minutes of the set, Mason showed the maturity that it had lacked earlier in the season and did not allow another Bucknell run; instead, the Patriots managed to increase their lead and closed the set at 25-19 with points off two Fanoga blocks, who was helped at the net by Clarke and Schaller, respectively.

-Kills by Clarke, Williams, Fanoga, and Wells got Mason going offensively early in the fifth set and allowed the team to build an early 4-2 lead. A rare attack error by Wells allowed Bucknell to come within one at 5-4, but the freshman corrected the mishap on the following play for a kill that went on to start a 4-0 Mason run. The Bison matched that run to tie the score at 10 all despite two Mason timeouts, but the link Schaller-Wells was simply unstoppable when it mattered the most and the freshman picked up four consecutive kills to complete the comeback at 15-11 in the fifth set in what was the Patriots' second-straight win this season.

-After going on a match-best 8-0 run earlier in the first set against Penn, Mason had the chance to start the afternoon on the front foot but could not hold on to a late four-point lead in the opening set. The Quakers won five-straight points on Sydney Morton's serving sequence to snatch the lead in the match, 25-23.

-Mason hit a phenomenal .448 as a team in the second set to lead by as many as five on separate occasions. A kill by Penn's Caroline Furrer put some pressure on Mason by cutting the lead to two at 21-19, but the Patriots responded in the best way possible, winning the next four points and ending the set on an ace by Espinoza for 25-19, which was the third time of the day that Simpson-Kirr's team won a set by that score line.

-The Quakers, coached by former Mason assistant coach Scott Schweihofer, dominated the third set from the get-go and limited the Patriots to only five kills to win it 25-12 and regain the lead in the match.

-The fourth set was a marathon that featured 19 tied scores and nine lead changes. Mason held the highest lead in it at 10-7 and was the first team to get a set point at 24-23 after a Fanoga kill, but it was annulled by a block from Hayley Molnar and Kendall Covington. The Patriots had four more opportunities to force a fifth set for the second time in the day – lastly at 31-30 – but Furrer demonstrated nerves of steel late on and helped the Quakers to a 33-31 win in the set, which also closed the match in Penn's favor.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

“This was a great weekend for our team. Every match was a battle and we are getting stronger with every point. We had different players come in throughout the weekend and positively impact the flow of the match. Great team effort.” – Mason's head coach Jackie Simpson-Kirr

NEXT ON THE COURT

-The Patriots will return home after a seven-match road trip and will host the Mason Invitational next Friday and Saturday.