The New York University men's volleyball team defeated Hunter College in three sets on Thursday, February 1, at the Hunter Sportsplex in Manhattan.
The Violets won 27-25, 25-22, 25-15, and returned to winning ways against their city rivals as they broke a two-game losing streak.
"Strong bounce back win by the guys. We were coming off of a tough loss and responded against a really good Hunter squad," said Head Coach
José Piña. "We hit .384 as a team and got kills in 50 percent of our attempts. Our middle hitters continued their hot streak and hit .500 (
Buddy Cohen) and .444 (
Ry Kagan) respectively."
Luke Boyer and
Emerson Evans posted 10 kills each as Boyer continues to lead the team in the category.
Lucas Osiecki added nine kills and is second on the team behind Boyer.
Devyn Nguyen racked up a match-high 30 assists, as the rookie put in another strong performance.
"All three of our pin hitters also performed very well offensively (.412 for Osiecki, .409 for Boyer, and .300 for Evans)," Piña added. "And we also received strong performances from
Zach Knudsen and
Devyn Nguyen which we've had all year. Now we get ready for a very tough and talented St. Joseph's University team on Saturday."
The
13th-ranked Violets took an early, two-point lead at 5-3 which they let go only once at 20-19. The gap was never greater than four points as the Hawks could not get ahead.
NYU closed out the first set with kills from Kagan and Osiecki, both assisted by Nguyen.
The lead changed three times in the second as NYU stayed ahead throughout most of the set. The Violets held off a late Hunter rally and managed to win the period by three points and set up the sweep.
Set three then proved to be a one-sided affair. Scoring the first three points unanswered set the tone for the rest of the frame, as the Violets cruised to a 10-point gap to finish the game.
Nguyen assisted five different teammates as the Hawks were unable to come close and NYU won the set by double-digits.
The men's volleyball team is back in action on Saturday, February 3, in Patchogue, NY, where they face St. Joseph's University-Long Island.
