The New York University men's volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season on Thursday night, January 29, 3-2 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
The Violets (2-1) entered that match against the Brewers (3-2) ranked #10 in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top-15 Poll. In addition, Thursday's five-set match marks the third match to go the distance for NYU this season.
NYU began the match with a nice win in the first set, 25-17, before dropping the second 25-19.
Late in the third set, the Violets found themselves down 23-21 before getting two straight points to tie it at 23. Following that point was a series of trade-offs in which each team took the lead with every alternating point until the score was knotted up at 31-31.
The Brewers were able to ultimately pull out the 33-31 win to take a 2-1 advantage.
"The third set was the pivotal game, not just because of the length, but because we had a lot of opportunities to get ahead and we just did not convert," said NYU Head Coach Jose Pina. "That allowed Vassar to gather momentum to win the set. Even though we came back to beat them in the fourth set, we just gave them way too much momentum."NYU came out strong to take the fourth set 25-16 and force a decisive fifth.
The Violets were able to get out to a 6-3 lead, but Vassar fought back and then took control for the 15-10 fifth-set win to take the match 3-2.
"Set five was back and forth as well," continued Pina. "Vassar's libero made two outstanding digs and they were also able to convert on their kills. Overall, we had a really succesful serving game, but it just came down to not being able to convert on our opportunities."HIGHLIGHTS:-
Nick Benson led the Violets in kills (24) and points (27.0) for the second time this season, notching match highs in both. The junior hitter also added eight digs, two assists, a service ace, and three total blocks.
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Chase Klein was right behind Benson with 17 kills and swung an outstanding .577. The sophomore hitter added eight digs, two assists, one service ace, and a block assist.
"Nick had a very good offensive game," said Pina. "Chase also played very strongly, converting very efficiently on his attempts, as you can see by his hitting percentage."
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Colin LaPorte registered a nice overall game, finishing with nine kills, a match-best-tying 10 dgis, four total blocks, two service aces, and an assist.
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Derrick Chiu led all players with a career-high 53 assists. The sophomore setter also notched three digs, two kills, one block assist, and a service ace.
"As part of his development, it's good to see Derrick come back and get that many assists," continued Pina. "It's just a process of developing a young setter."-
Phil Bueno registered a match-best four service aces to go along with seven kills, three total blocks and a dig.
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Andrew Quirk also finished with eight digs.
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Sean Leahy led all Violets with a team-best five total blocks and five kills.
NYU will return to the court for another road match on Tuesday, February 3, at Hunter College in Manhattan. First-serve is scheduled for 6:00 pm and
live stats will be available.
