Lucas Osiecki produced a match-high 16.0 points despite New York University's ninth-ranked men's volleyball team falling in straight sets to second-ranked Vassar College on Saturday in a United Volleyball Conference (UVC) showdown at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.

The Violets (11-5, 2-2 UVC) battled throughout, losing by set scores of 25-22, 26-24, 25-18 while holding Vassar's Andrew Kim, who is hitting well above .400 this year, to a .148 hitting percentage.

"It was actually a pretty good match," said head coach José Piña. "Vassar's experience came into play. Five of their six starters have been playing together for three full years. That makes you more efficient when it comes to tough points."

Set one was back-and-forth and featured 10 ties and four lead changes. A Brewer service error knotted the score at 17-17, but Vassar went on a 7-1 run from there to take set point at 24-18. The Violets then scored four straight, including back-to-back Osiecki kills, but couldn't come all the way back.

NYU managed to grab a late lead in the second set, going up 17-14 after a kill from Gautham Dasari. The Brewers eventually tied the score 21-21, but Osiecki once again had back-to-back kills to give NYU a 23-21 lead. However, a 5-1 spurt from Vassar completed the comeback and kept a sweep alive.

The Brewers maintained their momentum, establishing an 18-11 advantage in the third. NYU eventually came within five, 22-17, but a pair of errors and a kill from Payne Lounsbery sealed the visitors' win.

"There was a stretch of eight points where they pulled away from us in game three, which is the only part of the match in which we didn't play well," Piña added. "I was very pleased with the performance. We were able to hold their best hitter, who had been hitting at a 40 percent clip, to 15 percent. They had been hitting almost 40 percent as a team and we held them to 27. In my opinion, the difference was them being a more veteran team than us."

Osiecki finished with 12 kills (.529), two aces and two solo blocks for his 16 points, adding seven digs. Dasari totaled 11 kills and four digs.

Ryan Li posted a match-high 34 assists along with four block assists and an ace. 

The Violets are right back in action tomorrow, March 26, hosting Concordia University-Wisconsin at noon at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.