CHARLESTON, W.Va.
– History repeated itself on Thursday as George Mason's men's volleyball team swept Charleston (W.Va.) just like it did a year ago to begin its Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association title defense with a win.
MATCH NOTES
-Mason will go down in history as the first team to win in Charleston's brand-new Werhle Arena as Thursday's match was the inaugural athletic event.
-The Patriots led after the playing out of all but four of the 132 points in the match. The Golden Eagles had only one lead in the contest, which came after the very first point in it.
-The two best offensive performances of the night came from the Patriots' redshirt senior opposite hitter
Jack Wilson (11 kills, .348 hitting, 1 service ace) and redshirt sophomore middle blocker
Garrett Kollar (7 kills, career-high 4 service aces, .462 hitting). The offense was once again run by junior setter
Brian Negron (26 assists), who picked up two kills himself.
-Kollar completed a well-rounded performance with a match-high six blocks and one spectacular pancake dig on the defensive end, which led to a Mason point in the third set. Another big man, freshman outside hitter
Sam Greenslade (3 kills, 1 block), marked his first start as a Patriot with career-high five digs, one short of match leaders
Johnny Gomez, Mason's senior libero, and Charleston's setter Anthony Rivera.
-Charleston's senior Brian Cranston (4 digs) had a flawless night offensively and posted team-high five kills on .500 hitting while also assisting sophomore Eugene Stuart (5 kills, 1 dig) twice for the Golden Eagles' only two blocks in the match. Rivera (25 assists) had three kills and a match-best 1.000 hitting performance.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-Stuart's match-opening kill triggered a collective roar by Charleston's starters, bench and fans in the Wehrle Arena, but Mason tamed the excitement by winning the following four points before the lead grew to five at 7-2 after consecutive Kollar aces. A slump in Mason's play then allowed a 4-1 run by the home team that cut the lead to just two at 13-11 after a kill by Donovan Wilmott (4 kills, 1 service ace). Another kill by Kollar, followed by a triple block by Greenslade, Wilson, and redshirt sophomore middle blocker
Langston Payne, who had career-high 4 blocks, increased the lead to four, 15-11. The Patriots' advantage never fell to two for the remainder of the set and even went up to as many as six points twice – with a block by Kollar and freshman opposite hitter
Bradley Creamer (22-16) and a Kollar kill (23-17) – before a bad set by Rivera put an end to the opening set, 25-21.
-The Patriots had only nine kills as a team in the second set (.300 hitting) but held their opponent to -.087, which helped them be in complete control for the most part. A 7-2 Mason run that opened the set forced a Charleston timeout and soon after the Patriots went into double digits with a six-point lead after Wilson buried a kill to correct an error from the previous play, 10-4. By the time head coach
Jay Hosack's team had doubled those points, so had nearly the lead as Mason reached the 20-point mark with the match's largest lead of 11 points. Wilson was involved again, this time aiding Payne for a block on former teammate
Bryant Ekstein. Payne later single-handedly blocked Stuart to stop a 4-1 Golden Eagles run at 22-13. Charleston outscored Mason for the remainder of the set, but another bad set closed it in the Patriots' favor at 25-18.
-Aided by the 9-5 run on which it ended the second set, Charleston hung with Mason early in the third set before a solo block by Kollar gave the Patriots their largest advantage at 10-6. The Golden Eagles came around again as one of Ekstein's four kills brought them within two at 11-9. Mason responded with a run to grab a new set-high lead in mid-set after back-to-back kills from freshman middle blocker
Bryce Gatling (2 kills, .667 hitting) made the score 15-10. That lead grew to six twice, including 18-12 thanks to a kill by freshman outside hitter
Hayden Wagner. But the Golden Eagles refused to give up in their season opener and were within two once again after a Cranston kill made it 18-16. The Patriots picked themselves up late in the set and allowed only two additional points before another Charleston error closed the match at 25-18 and 3-0.
POST-MATCH QUOTES FROM MASONCOACH JAY HOSACK
Heat on the sidelines: "My guys were playing flat volleyball and if they were not going to be fired up to play, then I will be fired up to play. I am not just going on the sidelines, watching our guys just go through the motions. If we check out mentally, that's not Mason volleyball – I won't accept it, the staff won't accept it and I know that the kids, too, won't accept it."
Road lessons learned: "We've got to clean up little aspects of the game. We are leaving too many points on the table. Whether it's a free ball, a missed blocking assignment or not running the right route, we are leaving points that we shouldn't be on the table. The kind of teams that we want to face at the end of the year will not give us freebies that often, so we have to make sure that the foundation is made of cement and not made of sand."
NEXT ON THE COURT
The Patriots will have the weekend off after the week-long road trip and will have their home opener on Jan. 20 against King before taking on No. 8 Loyola Chicago the following night. Both matches will be at the RAC Gym and will start at 7 p.m.
