Just as it did in the squads' regular season matchup, New York University's men's volleyball team swept Nazareth College in the quarterfinals of the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Championships to keep the Violets' season alive.

Playing on the campus of SUNY New Paltz, NYU (10-10) took three hard-fought sets from the Golden Flyers (25-22, 25-22, 27-25) on Friday evening, advancing to tomorrow's semifinal match.

"Hard fought win for the team," said Head Coach José Piña. "The guys competed really well against a tough Nazareth team that had been playing well and was at full strength."

Nazareth (17-9) scored the first point of the night, but NYU rattled off five straight in response and never trailed from there. The Golden Flyers came within one late in the frame (19-18), but a pair of Owen Wahlgren kills down the stretch sealed a slim set one win.

The Golden Flyers used four unanswered points to go up 6-4 in the second and held a narrow edge for much of the set. However, a 6-1 NYU run featuring kills from Tyler Flood, Gautham Dasari and Matthew Noel gave the Violets a 19-15 lead late. Dasari stayed hot, delivering two more kills for NYU's 24th and 25th points to put the Violets on the verge of victory.

Set three was the definition of back-and-forth with 15 lead changes and 14 ties. James Haag came through in the clutch for the Violets, slamming a kill for a 26-25 edge which was followed by a Nazareth error to seal the sweep and send NYU to the semis.

"The team was able to grind out a win by playing smart and aggressively," Piña explained.

Dasari finished with a team-high 11 kills, three digs and a solo block. Haag had nine kills, Flood eight, Wahlgren four and Noel three to round out NYU's offense.

Ryan Whealen dished out a match-high 28 assists and contributed three digs, two kills and a block. Haag also brought up a team-high four digs to lead five Violets with at least three on the night.

"The whole team stood out," Piña added. "We did have very strong play from Ryan Whealen, Tyler Flood and James Haag."

The fourth-seeded Violets will face sixth-ranked and first-seeded New Paltz in one of two semifinal matches tomorrow with first serve going up at 2:30 pm. The Hawks earned the right to host the Championships after finishing with a perfect 7-0 UVC record in the regular season.