Box Score

With a trip to the Molten Division III Championship on the line, the New York University men's volleyball team could not pull off the much-needed win, falling 3-1 to Springfield College on Wednesday night, April 6, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.

The Violets (17-8), currently ranked #2 in the AVCA Division III Men's Top 15 Coaches Poll, needed to pull off the 3-0 sweep against the #3 Pride (14-13) to have a chance to earn the EIVA bid to the Molten Championship.  However, with their Division III season on the line, the team could not pull off the win, falling 3-1 (27-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-13) to Springfield, which will make the trip to Rochester, NY, for the Championship instead.

"We did not play the clean game we were hoping for tonight," said head coach Jose Pina.  "Springfield did exactly what we thought they were going to do on offense, but our blocking wasn't sharp and our serve receive wasn't where it should have been tonight."

Leading the Violets in the loss was Pat Dodd, who notched a team-high 12 kills and hit .360 on offense while also picking up the team's only two service aces of the match.

Also in double digits on offense was Taylor Fauntleroy, who tallied 10 kills while coming just short of the double-double with nine digs.

On defense at the net, Nick Capriccio put back a match-high five blocks, including two solos, while also putting down 7 kills on offense.

Along the back line, libero Jay Hayes put up a team-high 11 digs.

For the Pride, Alberto Bravo led all players with 23 kills, while Nick Ferry added 12 digs.

The Violets return to the court Friday night with their playoff hopes on the line.  NYU will host Harvard University in a Tear It Up! event with a berth to the EIVA playoffs at stake.  An NYU win, accompanied by a Sacred Heart University loss, will give the Violets their first EIVA playoff berth since 2008, when they made it to the semifinals.  First serve is set for 7:00 pm.