The New York University men's volleyball team split its two matches on Sunday, March 22, in Buffalo, NY. In a tri-meet hosted by Medaille College, the Violets fell to Carthage College 3-1 before rebounding for a 3-1 win over the hosts.
In the first match, #8 (
American Volleyball Coaches Association) Carthage (17-6) took the first two sets (25-20, 25-12) before NYU came back for a 25-23 win in the third. The comeback fell short, however, as the Red Men captured the fourth set 25-18.
In the second match, the Violets (13-7) got off to a good start by taking the first two sets 25-21 and 25-16. The Mavericks (13-12) eeked out the third set 28-26 before NYU prevailed by taking the final set 25-23.
"We missed too many serves in the first match and we struggled against their jump servers," explained NYU Head Coach
Jose Pina. "In the second match, we had very strong performances from
Jaime Rivera,
Chase Klein and
Chase Corbett. It was a pretty good bounce-back win after a tough four-set loss."
Highlights vs. Carthage:-
Nick Benson led all players with a match-high 14 kills on 24 attempts with five errors for a .375 hitting percentage. The junior outside hitter also had two assists, two solo blocks and tied the match high with a career-best 15 digs.
-
Chase Klein notched 11 kills on 24 attempts with two errors to hit .375. The sophomore outside hitter also added a career-best 13 digs.
-
Colin LaPorte finished with 10 kills, six digs, two service aces, and one assisted block.
-
Andrew Quirk tied the match high with 15 digs.
-
Patrick Merrick led NYU with 26 assists, followed by 12 helpers from
Jaime Rivera.
Highlights vs. Medaille:- Klein led all players with 18 kills on 31 attempts with five errors, hitting .419. He also finished with eight digs, three total blocks and a service ace.
-
Chase Corbett and Benson each notched nine kills. Corbett also had five total blocks, while Benson had eight digs, two service aces and two assisted blocks.
- LaPorte had eight kills, four digs, two assisted blocks, one service ace, and one assist.
-
Sean Leahy led all players with seven total blocks. The sophomore middle hitter also had two kills and one dig.
- Rivera led the Violets with 29 assists. The freshman setter also registered five digs, four total blocks, one service ace, and a kill.
- Quirk notched a match-best 14 kills. The senior captain had reached double-digit digs six times this season, including each of the last three matches.
The Violets return to action next Saturday, March 28, when the squad hosts a United Volleyball Conference (UVC) tri-meet against Nazareth College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It will also be NYU's Senior & Family Day. The first match of the day is scheduled to begin at 11:00 am.
