The New York University men's volleyball team (9-6, 1-2) won its first United Volleyball Conference (UVC) match of the season 3-2 against Hobart College (14-8, 2-3) on Sunday, March 10, at Hobart's Bristol Gym in Geneva, NY.
 
The 13th-ranked Violets dropped the first set 25-23, won the second 27-25, then fell 29-27 in the third set.

However, they breezed through the fourth set 25-15 and won 16-14 in the fifth to snare their first conference game of the season.
 
"This was a great bounce-back win after a tough loss at Elmira yesterday," said Head Coach José Piña. "An excellent clutch performance by the whole team after falling behind by two sets to one in this match. The players showed a lot of character today, but we need to be more consistent in bringing this type of urgency to every match."
 
NYU took the first point of the match, but Hobart raced to a 5-2 lead. NYU tied it at 7-7 through two Hobart errors, but the Statesmen scored two more points to take the lead for good. The Violets never trailed by more than five and came close to equalizing at 21-19 after scoring four consecutive points featuring kills from Luke Boyer and Ry Kagan, while Devyn Nguyen served an ace. However, the Statesmen hold on to the set.
 
In the second set, NYU broke a 3-3 tie to take the lead. It widened the gap to five points following four unanswered points highlighted by another Kagan kill. But, the Violets conceded five straight points to the Statesmen and gave Hobart the lead for the first time in the set at 19-18.
 
The Violets tied the set five more times and eventually won thanks to two Kagan kills.
 
NYU broke a 10-10 tie in the third set to take a three-point lead that featured kills from Kagan and Lucas Osiecki. But the Statesmen tied the game three more times and took the lead 22-19 following five successive points.
 
A four-point run gave the Violets the lead one more time, but Hobart came back again and had three match points before finally ending the set.
 
In response, NYU stormed to a 12-2 lead in the fourth set, scoring seven in a row. The Violets took the lead for good and Hobart never came within seven points. NYU brought the game to its fifth set through kills from Boyer and Buddy Cohen.
 
NYU went out to an 8-6 lead in the final set following a four-point streak highlighted by a Kagan kill and two Osiecki aces. The score was tied five more times before two Kagan kills gave NYU the win.
 
Kagan registered 20 kills, Osiecki had 17 followed closely by Boyer with 15. Kagan also put up six blocks.
 
Nguyen led the match in assists again with 47, while he and Zach Knudsen had 12 digs each.
 
The Violets are on the road again next weekend, Saturday, March 16, at 1 p.m. playing Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.