NJIT NJIT 11-7,6-3 EIVA

George Mason GMU 9-11,4-6 EIVA

NJIT NJIT

11-7,6-3 EIVA

Final

Mar. 25, 2022

George Mason GMU

9-11,4-6 EIVA

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	4	F
NJIT NJIT	36	21	25	22	(1)
George Mason GMU	38	25	20	25	(3)

Box Score

Rafael Suanes/George Mason Univ.

Mason Upsets No. 15 NJIT, Earns First Ranked Win of the Season

Game Recap: Men's Volleyball | 3/25/2022 10:47:00 PM

FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason men's volleyball team (9-11, 4-6 EIVA) earned a four set (38-36, 25-21, 20-25, 25-22) victory against No. 15 NJIT (11-7, 6-3 EIVA) on Friday night inside the RAC. This marks Mason's first win against a ranked opponent this season.

Mason and No. 15 NJIT came out fighting hard, going point for point for a vast majority of the set. Any time the Highlanders would pull away by a two-point margin, the Patriots would storm back to tie the game or take the slight lead. No. 15 NJIT looking to put this away at the 26^th point mark, helped electrify The RAC as each team battle point for point until the Patriots came away with the 38-36 set win. There were 18 ties and seven lead changes just in the first game of the match.

Coming off a strong first set of play, Mason continued the same type of play as the first set, not allowing their opponent to take the early lead. The Patriots and the Highlanders went point for point until after the 11-11-point mark when Mason started to take the slight advantage. No. 15 NJIT would try to storm back but were unsuccessful in their attempts as the closest they would get to the Patriots lead was by two. After pulling away more from the Highlanders, the Patriots took the win in the second set 25-21.

After losing the first two sets of the match, No. 15 NJIT stormed back with a vengeance to prevent the Patriots from taking the lead early in the third set. The Highlanders were able to pull away from the Patriots early in the set and despite Mason's attempts to retaliate, No. 15 NJIT took the win 25-21 win in the third game of the match.

Mason started the fourth set with the lead off a service error from the Highlanders. After that, No. 15 NJIT came off with the early lead just like they did in the third set. To prevent a decisive fifth set that could have led to a reverse sweep, the Patriots stormed back to tie the game at 7-7 before taking the lead for the rest of the set. The Highlanders stormed back to then tie the game again at 20-20 and 21-21. Two kills from redshirt sophomore Jack Bolz and errors from the Highlanders gave the Patriots the 25-22 win in the fourth game to take the match win 3-1.

"I am very proud of the resiliency in our boys tonight," said Head Coach Jay Hosack. "NJIT is a very good team and are well coached. We did a nice job of executing the game plan and finding the right hitters at the right time."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Redshirt sophomore Jack Bolz led the offensive momentum for the Patriots, tallying match highs and team highs in kills (21).
This is the fourth time this season Bolz has tied his career high 21 kills.
Sophomore Omar Hoyos also tallied double digit kills, recording 12 in the match.
Sophomore Collin Heath led the team on the defensive end, tallying a team high and match high in digs (14).
Sophomore Sam Peters led the match in blocks, tallying nine in four sets played.
Freshman Troy McDonald led the match and team in assists, recording 45 in the match.
This is a new career high for McDonald in assists.
The Patriots tallied 24 total blocks in the match.
No. 15 NJIT outhit Mason, 23.4 percent to the Patriots' 21.7 percent.
Both Mason and No. 15 NJIT tallied 54 kills in the match.
Mason recorded six service aces while No. 15 NJIT tallied five.

UP NEXT

Mason will close out the weekend with another EIVA match, this one against St. Francis Brooklyn on Saturday Mar. 26 with first serve slated for 5 P.M. inside The RAC.

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