Lucas Osiecki and Gautham Dasari continued their strong play to lead New York University's 15th-ranked men's volleyball team over Aurora University in five sets on Saturday night in Aurora, IL.

It was the first win of 2023 for the Violets, who fell in a five-setter yesterday at top-ranked and two-time defending national champion Carthage in the season opener.

"Tonight's win was a nice bounce back from yesterday's competition," said head coach Jose Pina. "The young men were able to pull out a tough victory on a day where Sachin had to start for an injured Ryan Li. Sachin had a very good game in his first start of the season."

Osiecki delivered 16 kills on .323 hitting tonight while Dasari posted a 14-kill, 11-dig double-double in the victory.

NYU used a 7-2 run in the early stages of the first to take a 9-5 lead and didn't look back, winning the opening set 25-21 behind 12 kills in the frame.

Aurora evened things up in the second, going on to win 25-20 while limiting the Violets to six kills and just .050 hitting.

The Violets bounced back and produced a convincing, 25-15, triumph in the third. The team gained control with a 7-2 spurt in the middle stages of the set, capped off by a Ry Kagan kill, to take an 18-11 edge. Another scoring run created more separation before back-to-back Spartan errors ended the stanza.

NYU committed eight errors in the fourth and Aurora took advantage, rattling off 12 kills to swing the momentum back to the home side with a 25-17 win to force a fifth set.

The Violets had plenty left in the tank in the fifth, racing out to a 10-3 lead thanks to three points from Osiecki on a kill and two aces. The early cushion was too much for the Spartans and NYU went on to secure a 15-6 win to end the match on top.

Kagan finished with seven block assists while Osiecki chipped in four in addition to his match high in kills.

Sachin Dasari dished out a career-high 30 assists, adding six digs and an ace. Zach Knudsen chipped in 11 digs as well.

NYU will continue the early stages of the season on the road, returning to the metropolitan area to play Kean College on Saturday, January 28, in Union, NJ.