The New York University men's volleyball team picked up a pair of victories over familiar foes on Saturday, March 21, defeating Hilbert College and D'Youville College at a tri-match on the campus of D'Youville in Buffalo, NY.
The Violets (12-6), ranked #9 in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) rankings, defeated the two former United Volleyball Conference (UVC) members in a combined seven sets. They began by topping the Hawks (1-22) in three sets (25-23, 25-21, 25-23) and followed with a four-set victory (25-16, 25-11, 22-25, 25-22) over the hosting Spartans (12-7).
NYU won three tightly contested sets against Hilbert, led by a career- and match-high 12 kills from
Jake Getz. In addition,
Chase Corbett was very efficient in his collegiate debut. The rookie middle hitter had nine kills on 10 swings to post an outstanding .800 hitting percentage. The 6-foot-5 Corbett also notched a match-best five total blocks.
"This match allowed us to play a few different lineups and for Chase to play his first match," said NYU Head Coach
Jose Pina. "Arya (
Amirhekmat), who's one of our senior captains, had his first net action. We played well and had a good performance. Our middles had a strong match."
Against D'Youville, NYU's regulars returned to the court.
Nick Benson led all players with 23 kills on 42 attempts to finish with a .357 hitting percentage.
Colin LaPorte also finished with double-digit kills (11), while the junior outside hitter also registered eight digs and five assisted blocks.
"Another strong match by Colin," continued Pina. "Benson had his usual strong hitting match. We had a lull through parts of sets three and four, but recovered well and beat a good D'Youville team."
Highlights vs. Hilbert:- Getz also had four digs, two assisted blocks and one service ace.
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Will Kozloski notched eight kills, a match-high nine digs, one service ace, and a block assist.
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Arya Amirhekmat had five kills, three digs, two assisted blocks, and a service ace.
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Derrick Chiu dished out a team-best 22 assists to go along with three digs and two assisted blocks. Fellow setter
Jaime Rivera also registered 12 helpers and a dig.
Highlights vs. D'Youville:- Benson also had five digs, three total blocks, one service ace, and an assist.
- Corbett had six kills, three service aces and three assisted blocks.
- Amirhekmat and
Sean Leahy each registered five kills. Amirhekmat also had five digs, a service ace and a block assist, while Leahy had four assisted blocks, one assist, one service aces, and one dig.
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Patrick Merrick led all players with a match-best 41 assists. The sophomore setter also three digs, one block assist and a service ace.
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Benjamin Oxnard notched a match-high 11 digs and six assists.
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Jerry Henriquez made his collegiate debut after missing his entire freshman season due to injury.
"This was a good preparation for tomorrow's matches against two tough west region opponents," said Pina.
The Violets will be back in action tomorrow morning, Sunday, March 22, when they take part in a tri-match at Medaille College in Buffalo. NYU will face #8 Carthage College at 9:00 am then the hosting Mavericks at 11:00 am.
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