Gautham Dasari's career-high 24 kills led New York University's eighth-ranked men's volleyball team in a five-set victory over St. Joseph's University-Long Island on Tuesday night at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.

The Violets dropped the first two sets, but rallied to win the next three to complete their biggest comeback of the season and improve to 11-4.

Along with Dasari's offense, Kyle Rasmussen came in towards the end of the second set and helped NYU regain composure while providing quality defense.

"Calmness," head coach José Piña said of what Rasmussen brought off the bench tonight. "The fact that situations like this don't phase him. What we needed was a little stability on the court to take away some of their momentum...in game three keeping Kyle in was to have a guy who can keep his emotions under control and serve as a calming presence."

Rasmussen finished with six digs, two blocks, two assists and two kills while Ryan Li had a match-high 45 assists and Zach Knudsen produced a match-high 15 digs.

St. Joseph's never led by more than five points in the first until the end of the set as NYU was in it throughout, but the Violets committed 15 errors as they dropped the opener 25-19.

In the second, with the scored tied 9-9, the Golden Eagles used an 8-1 run to take control and went on to win the frame 25-17 and put the hosts on the ropes.

NYU limited St. Joseph's to .040 hitting in the third while Dasari posted five kills in the frame and the Violets stayed alive with a 25-18 triumph.

The momentum was in the hosts' favor from there as a Ry Kagan ace put NYU ahead 7-1 in the fourth. A kill from Luke Boyer made it 19-9 NYU as the Violets cruised to a 25-17 win, capped off by another Kagan ace to force a fifth.

NYU only trailed once in the fifth, after the first point of the set, limiting the Golden Eagles to .000 hitting in the frame as Dasari tacked on four more kills to complete the comeback.

"Gautham carried the team offensively," Piña added. "St. Joseph's was tough. But, I expected them to be tough and that was what we kept telling the team...we might have taken them a little too lightly initially, but once Kyle came in we calmed down, stabilized the game and we were able to come back and win the last three games."

It was the Violets' third consecutive victory while Dasari's 24 kills tied for the fourth-highest single-game total for a United Volleyball Conference (UVC) player this season. He added seven digs, a block and an assist.

Boyer had 10 kills, seven digs, two blocks and two aces. Buddy Cohen contributed nine kills and three blocks while Kagan finished with five kills, four blocks and three aces.

NYU returns to the court tomorrow to take on top-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, at 7:00 p.m.