CHARLESTON, WVa. – The George Mason men's volleyball team (11-11, 6-6 EIVA) earned a four set (25-20, 22-25, 25-16, 25-15) victory against Charleston (5-12, 2-9 EIVA) on Friday night inside the Wehrle Innovation Center.
Charleston (WVa.) started off strong with the one-point advantage, but the Patriots quickLy stormed back to take the lead for the entirety of the set. Looking to regroup at the 9-4-point mark that followed a sophomore
Sam Peters kill, the Golden Eagles were unable to garner an offensive push leading the Patriots to take the win in the first set, 25-20.
After a strong first set of play by Mason, the Golden Eagles took the early advantage again before matching the Patriots' energy, fighting point-to-point for a majority of the match. Attacking errors on the Patriots allowed Charleston (WVa.) to pull away with the lead and eventually take the win in set two, 25-22.
After dropping set two, Mason was able to regain their offensive momentum early in the third set off attacking errors by the Golden Eagles. The closest Charleston (WVa.) came within the Patriots lead was two points, but it was not enough as Mason took the 25-16 win in the third set.
In the fourth set, Mason went on a 6-0 run before the Golden Eagles scored their first point of the game. Charleston (WVa.) would make several substitutions to adjust to the Patriots hot hitting, but Mason was a force that could not be stopped as they took the 25-15 win in the set and the 3-1 match win.
"We helped our cause tonight for making the playoffs," said Head Coach
Jay Hosack. "I thought our guys played with good poise and executed at a good level. Tomorrow will be a dogfight no doubt."
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
- Redshirt sophomore Jack Bolz led the offensive momentum for the Patriots, tallying match highs and team highs in kills (19).
- Senior Richie Hoff also tallied double digit kills, recording 10 in the match.
- Freshman Troy McDonald led the team on the defensive end, tallying a team high, match high, and career high in digs (11).
- McDonald led the team in assists, recording 38 in the match.
- Freshman Lucas Little led the match in blocks, tallying five in four sets played.
- Sophomore Sam Peters led the team in hitting percentage, recording a 0.455 mark (seven kills on 11 attempts with two errors).
- The Patriots tallied 11 total team blocks in the match.
- Mason outhit Charleston (WVa), 30.0 percent to the Golden Eagles' 19.2 percent.
- Both Mason tallied 49 kills and Charleston (WVa.) tallied 47 kills in the match.
- Mason recorded five service aces while Charleston (WVa) tallied two.
UP NEXT
Mason will close out the weekend series on Saturday Apr. 2 with first serve slated for 5 p.m.
