The start of the New York University men's volleyball team's historically-successfully season ranks as #40 on the Top-50 list of varsity sports highlights of the 2019-20 academic year.

The Violets began their season with competition at the California Lutheran University Invitational in Thousand Oaks, CA, from January 17-19.  

Coming into the campaign ranked #13 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Preseason Poll, the Violets defeated Fontbonne University and host #16 Cal Lutheran in straight sets to begin the weekend.

Then, facing #8 University of California, Santa Cruz, NYU was pushed to the limit. Twice rebounding from one-set deficits and trailing 9-8 in the final one, Head Coach Jose Pina's veteran squad went on to eek out the five-set victory.against the Banana Slugs.

Neil Ferraro (Newton, MA/Xaverian Brothers) and Evan Lindley (Evanston, IL/Evanston Township) paced the Violets with 14 kills each, while Alex Li (Cupertino, CA/Monta Vista) had 13 and Tyler Flood (Corona del Mar, CA/Corona del Mar) added 11. Matin Bikdeli (Irvine, CA/University) registered a career-high 51 assists in setting up the NYU attack, while Connor Keowen (San Ramon, CA/California) led the Violets with 13 digs.   

A complete recap of that match can be found here. 

Previous Season Highlights
#50 - Softball Wins Season Opener
#49 - Men's Tennis Opens Season Successfully at TCNJ Lions Kickoff
#48 - Baseball is Back – Violets Win Season Opener
#47 - Men's Basketball Secures first UAA win, 80-79. vs. CMU; Macarchuk's three-pointer snaps 75-75 tie with 1:40 left
#46 - Softball Wins Season Finale; Swan tosses three-hit shutout
#45 - Men's Tennis Wins on Senior Day
#44 - Baseball Ends Season with a One-Hit Victory
#43 - Women's Fencing Dominant at FDU Invitational
#42 - Women's Volleyball Begins Season on Six-Match Winning Streak
#41 - Women's Soccer Dominates in Home Opener