The #12-ranked New York University men's volleyball team defeated #18-ranked Misericordia University 3-2 on Wednesday, April 3, at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan.
 
The Violets (14-7) lost the first set 25-20 but came back in the second 25-23. Misericordia (20-10) won the third set 25-19, but NYU sent the match to its fifth set with a 25-19 win in the fourth.

The Violets won the match thanks to a comfortable 15-7 fifth-set victory.
 
"It was a good win today," said Head Coach José Piña. "It was an up-and-down performance, but we responded well and we played the way we should play in the last set and a half. We had a very effective match against them."
 
NYU took a 13-10 lead in the first set, but a Misericordia three-point run tied the score. Both teams traded points until two Cougars' points broke an 18-18 tie as they took the lead for good.
 
Misericordia raced to a 6-3 lead in the second set, but a pair of Violets' two-point runs tied the set for the first time at 7-7. Misericordia scored the next point, but NYU scored three in a row, highlighted by kills from Emerson Evans and Luke Boyer, to take the lead for the rest of the set.
 
The Cougars came within one point at 23-22, but two Lucas Osiecki kills closed the set out for NYU.
 
Misericordia led 11-7 in the third set, but NYU closed the deficit to one with a three-point run featuring two Lucas Osiecki kills. However, the Cougars held onto the lead for the rest of the set, opening a six-point gap on multiple occasions.
 
The Cougars took another early lead in the fourth set at 9-8. However, five successive Violets' points, featuring kills from Ry Kagan and Evans, resulted in NYU's first lead. They held it for the rest of the set, extending their advantage to as many as seven points. The Violets conceded two more points before a Kagan kill sent the game to its decisive last set.
 
Misericordia scored the first two points of the fifth, but NYU then ran off eight consecutive points capped by two Boyer kills. The Violets extended their lead to seven points due to multiple scoring streaks and clinched the match on a combo block by Buddy Cohen, Devyn Nguyen and Osiecki.
 
Evans led the Violets with 16 kills, followed by Osiecki with 15 and Boyer with 12. Nguyen had a strong performance with a match-high 40 assists and three aces, while Zach Knudsen and Osiecki rounded out the match with 10 digs each.
 
"The next two games decide our United Volleyball Conference fate, as well as our NCAA at-large bid, so we are in a very good place to play now," added Piña.
 
The Violets host #8-ranked St. John Fisher University on Friday, April 5, at 7:00pm, and #17-ranked Nazareth University on Saturday, April 6, at 1:00pm.