FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason women's volleyball team split its' two games on Friday, dropping the first match to Brown, 3-1, and sweeping Robert Morris 3-0 in match two.
 
GAME ONE: BROWN
The first match of the Mason Invite was a battle, as the undefeated Bears downed the hosts 3-1 in an evenly matched game. Gabriella Gelfound had a well-rounded afternoon with a double-double on a team-best 28 assists and 16 digs. She also added eight kills and a block assist. Nani Spaar, Ewelina Gacek and Olyvia Kennedy all posted double-digit kills.
 
The match totaled 25 tie scores and 12 lead changes, beginning with set one. The Patriots (2-5) led 11-8 on three-straight points to force a Brown timeout, and the Bears (5-0) then went on a 5-0 run of their own and led 13-11. Brown led by as many as five at 22-17, but Mason scored five of the next seven points on kills from four different Patriots. However, the match's top offensive player, Mariia Sidorova, tallied one of her match-high 16 kills to win set one 25-23.
 
Brown trailed for very little of set two, holding off the Patriots with several blocks. On the other hand, Mason stayed in the set by forcing the Bears into a game-high nine errors. The Patriots trailed 24-21 on a bad set, but a well-timed timeout powered the Patriots to five-straight points to close the set and win 26-24. Camile Larkin's third block of the set tied it at 24-a-piece and Gacek's team-high fourth kill closed the set with a win. 
 
It was Mason who led in the opening minutes of set three, however never leading by more than three. The Patriots led 12-9 before the Bears scored three-straight points after capitalizing on several Mason errors to tie the set at 12. The set was tied seven more times down the stretch until Brown rattled off four-straight points to claim set point. Mason got kills from Gacek and Gelfound to extend the set, but Brown closed the door on a kill of their own.


Set four once again started in a back-and-forth battle with neither team leading by more than two points. With the set tied at nine, Brown strung together an 12-2 run to take a 21-11 lead. Mason was able to prolong the match using efficient hitting on six kills with no errors, but the lead was too much to overcome and the Bears took the set 25-19.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Spaar (15), Gacek (13) and Kennedy (12) all registered double-digit kills for Mason and all hit above a .200 efficiency. Kennedy's 12 were a season-high while Spaar hit double-figures for the fifth-straight match
• Also an offensive highlight for Mason, Camille Larkin tallied eight kills on 15 attempts with no errors for a match-high .533 clip
• Larkin and Gacek both led Mason defensively at the net as they both registered four block assists each. Gacek's four match her career-high
• Gracie Halley led the team with 24 digs. Damiana Bova-Ford also registered double-figure digs with 10 to go with 18 assists for her second double-double of the season

 
GAME TWO: ROBERT MORRIS
Nani Spaar shined in game two, leading one of the Patriots' best offensive outputs of the young season. The graduate outside hitter matched her career-high of 19 kills in just three sets at an incredible .515 clip, and being forced into just two errors. Mason was also extremely clean across the court as a team, with season lows in hitting errors (12), service errors (5) and reception errors (2).
 
Both teams hit extremely efficiently in the first set, with marks over .333 or better. With 11 tie scores and six lead changes, neither team led by more than four at any point. The Patriots (3-5) led 15-11 at the media timeout on a Spaar kill before the Colonials (2-4) would battle back to tie the set at 19-a-piece. Mason was able to regain the lead, 23-22, but two-straight kills from Robert Morris gave it the lead and forced a Patriots' timeout. Kills from Kennedy and Gacek took back the lead and an RMU error gave Mason the 26-24 win.
 
With set two tied at four, Spaar and Gabriella Gelfound combined for the next five points, including a kill and two blocks from Gelfound, to take a 9-4 lead that the Patriots would hold for the remainder of the set. Robert Morris got within two, 14-12, but another 3-0 run, once again led by a Gelfound kill gave Mason breathing room down the stretch. The teams traded points and Spaar's 11^th kill of the night closed the set at 25-19.
 
The Patriots hit .379 while limiting the Colonials to just .191 in the third set to lead them to the sweep. The set once again started as a back-and-forth battle, but three-straight kills from Spaar gave Mason the lead for good at 12-11. Spaar registered eight kills and Olyvia Kennedy provide three on four attempts to lead the offense down the stretch as the Patriots scored the final five points en route to the 25-18 victory.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Olyvia Kennedy put down seven kills on 10 attempts for a team best .700 efficiency and Ewelina Gacek contributed nine kills of her own
• Gracie Halley led all players with 14 digs and was the only player of the night to eclipse double-figures
• Gabriella Gelfound led the Patriots with three blocks with nine assists and seven kills
• Camille Larkin once again led Mason at the service line, tallying two service aces
• The Patriots' .357 hitting percentage is a season-best, and the first time they hit above .300

 
UP NEXT
The Patriots will wrap up the Mason Invite with a match against Radford tomorrow at 2 p.m.