FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason men's volleyball team (5-7, 0-5 EIVA) fell in five sets (25-23, 18-25, 25-21, 23-25, 12-15) against Princeton (5-8, 4-3 EIVA) on Saturday night inside the Recreation Athletic Complex.
Mason started the match with a slight disadvantage as the Tigers took the lead early. The rest of the first set continued in a back-and-forth fashion like the match on Friday night. Freshman
Bobby Fowler shined for the Patriots at the end of the first set, to bring the Patriots back in front of the Tigers, eventually taking the set by two points.
The second set started in a similar fashion to the first, but the Tigers were able to pull away early to take the win. The Patriots stormed back in the third set with five kills from sophomore
Omar Hoyos and redshirt sophomore
Eamonn Testerman.
Mason, down for the first portion of the fourth set, was able to regroup to force five different match points. Just like the beginning of the sets, the Patriots and the Tigers were in a point-to-point battle, eventually earning the Tigers a win off a service error from senior
Richie Hoff.
Princeton took the match in five sets after pulling ahead of the Patriots at 10-7 point mark.
"I know we lost, but in my eyes that was the best match we have played all season," said Head Coach
Jay Hosack. "That is the product that the coaching staff sees every day in practice, and tonight, it finally showed itself. We are happy with that. A special thank you to all the alumni that came out in support of their program. We appreciate all of their energy."
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Sophomore Omar Hoyos led the offensive momentum for the Patriots, tallying match highs and team highs in kills (18).
- The outside hitter Hoyos led the team on the defensive end as well, recording a team high seven digs.
- Redshirt sophomore Jack Bolz was a team leader in kills (13) and digs (6).
- Sophomore Colin Heath started at libero for the Patriots, tallying seven digs and three assists.
- Freshman Lucas Little led the match in blocks, tallying nine in five sets played.
- Little has led the team in blocks for the last three matches.
- Redshirt sophomore Eamonn Testerman led the team in hitting percentage (0.875), notching seven kills on eight attempts.
- Hoyos had another hot hitting night, recording a hitting percentage of 0.378 (18 of 37).
- Freshman Troy McDonald notched a new career high in assists, recording 42 in the match.
- Mason outhit Princeton, 27.4 percent to the Tigers' 27.1 percent.
- Mason tallied 51 kills to Princeton's 54.
- Princeton recorded 11 service aces to Mason's five.
UP NEXT
Mason will travel to Sacred Heart for matches on Friday Mar. 4 and Saturday Mar. 5 with first serve set for 7 p.m.
