New York University's eighth-ranked men's volleyball team fell to Baruch College in five sets on Thursday, January 25, at the ARC Arena in Manhattan.

The Violets, now 2-2 on the season, slugged out a five-set match (27-25, 23-25, 26-24, 24-26, 16-18) against the Bearcats, trading points and sets throughout.

"Tough loss tonight. Baruch has a very good squad and played with tons of emotion," said Head Coach José Piña. "Our group of young men was not able to play with the same urgency as Baruch. Even though we had a few opportunities to win the match, including one swing to win it in set five. Our middle hitters had tremendous attacking performances, but Baruch was able to neutralize our pin hitters, and that was the difference in the match."

Buddy Cohen recorded a match-high 20 kills, while Ry Kagan put up 13  and Luke Boyer added 12 to his team-leading 52 for the season.  

Devyn Nguyen registered a match-high 54 assists and 12 digs for a double-double, continuing his fine form in his rookie year. 

The Violets played an intense first set that established the tone for the rest of the game. The score was tied 22 times with the lead changing hands 11 times. NYU ultimately secured victory through two attack errors from the Bearcats with the score tied at 25-25.

The second set was an equally close affair as the Bearcats grabbed the lead at 14-14 and didn't let go, but the Violets were never more than three points away from tying the score. 

Baruch scored five unanswered points to open the third set and kept the lead until the Violets tied it up 10-10. NYU edged out their third-set victory at 24-24 through a Nguyen kill then a Kagan and Lucas Osiecki block. 

The lead changed three times in the fourth set, as the match continued to be close. The Bearcats had the advantage for the majority of the set, with the largest lead at 10-5. Baruch capitalized on eight Violet attack errors to take the frame and even the match.

Set five saw neither team able to pull away, with the score tied 12 times while NYU took match point first through a Bearcat service error. However, at 16-16, the Violets committed two attack errors to see the Bearcats pull off the win.

NYU looks to bounce back after against Hunter College on Thursday, February 1, at the Hunter Sportsplex in Manhattan.