The 13th-ranked New York University men's volleyball team swept St. Joseph's University-Long Island in three highly-competitive sets on Saturday, February 3, in Patchogue, NY.
The Violets (4-2) won 29-27, 25-19, 26-24 against the Golden Eagles (1-3), sweeping their second consecutive opponent this week.
"The team competed hard today against a very good St. Joseph's team. I am very proud of how the young men were able to execute our game plan and come back from deficits in every one of the sets," said Head Coach José Piña. "Lucas Osiecki had an outstanding, all-around match with 15 points to show for it. Excellent serve receiving and defensive work by Zach Knudsen and Luke Boyer, to go along with his 11 kills. A solid performance at the net by Emerson Evans. And a really well run match by our freshman setter Devyn Nguyen."
In a fiercely competitive first set, the lead changed hands eight times as both teams traded points and were never two points off the other.
Osiecki's two kills saw out the opener, with Nguyen assisting both.
Both teams managed to find short runs of momentum in the second set. With the score at 6-5 NYU, the Golden Eagles scored five unanswered points to go ahead 10-5. NYU found its footing again though, managing to tie up the score at 12-12.
The two sides traded points until 17-17 when the Violets scored five straight points to almost close the set out at 22-17. St. Joseph's only recorded two more kills before three attack errors lost them the set, and put NYU a game away from victory.
Set three saw a return to back-and-forth action. The gap was no greater than four points at 8-4 to the Golden Eagles, and both teams were unable to pull away from the other, eventually tying up the score at 24-24.
An attack error by SJU led to match point, and an Evans kill from Nguyen closed out NYU's strong performance.
Osiecki notched a match-high 15 kills, while Luke Boyer and Ry Kagan continued their strong form with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Kagan hit .588, a match-high.
Nguyen recorded another 43 assists, continuing his smooth transition to collegiate volleyball.
"Now it's time to get ready for one of our all-time rivals, Springfield College, on Wednesday," Piña added.
The Violets next have their 2024 home opener at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan on Wednesday, February 7, at 6:00pm against afformentioned Springfield College.
