LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The George Mason men's volleyball team (7-8, 2-5 EIVA) fell in three sets (16-25, 20-25, 16-25) against No. 6 Southern California (14-3, 3-1 MPSF) on Wednesday night inside the Galen Center.
No. 6 Southern California took the lead early in the first set, but despite Mason's offensive effort, it was not enough to close in on the Trojans lead.
Mason came off the first set loss all fired up, taking the lead early in the second set of play. The Patriots took the lead by four points (7-3), before the Trojans were able to tie the game and go point for point most of the set. Despite No. 6 Southern California pulling away, the Patriots were able to close in on the Trojans lead to only suffer a five-point loss in the set.
To get the third set started, Mason took the first point of this critical set for the Trojans. Able to keep up, Mason and No. 6 Southern California went point for point until the Trojans were able to pull away by a large margin. The Patriots put up strong offensive rallies at the end of the set, but the Trojans were the ones to walk away with the win.
"I thought our passers did a great job of giving us opportunities to run our offense," said Head Coach
Jay Hosack. "However, our attackers did not fulfill their end of the bargain. We have to do a better job of executing our attack when we play good teams. When we do that, I like our chances against anyone."
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Redshirt sophomore Jack Bolz led the team in kills (5).
- Senior Richie Hoff was an all-around team leader, recording four kills, one service ace, one block and four digs.
- Freshman Lucas Little led the team in hitting percentage, hitting 0.429 with three kills on seven attempts.
- Three Patriots tallied four kills in the loss.
- Freshman Troy McDonald set a team high of 19 assists.
- Defensively, there Patriots recorded four digs.
- No. 6 Southern California outhit Mason, 38.9 percent to the Patriots' 8.5 percent.
- Mason tallied 24 kills to No. 6 Southern California's 36.
- No. 6 Southern California recorded five service aces to Mason's three.
UP NEXT
Mason will head over to No. 7 Pepperdine for an early evening match on Friday Mar. 11 with first serve slated for 8 p.m. (5 PT).
