March 5, 2005

Box Score

Newark, N.J. - The George Mason men's volleyball team continued a winning road trip on Saturday evening as the Patriots won their second match in as many days, defeating Rutgers-Newark, 30-24, 30-26, 30-28 in an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match.

Mason clung to a 13-12 lead in the first game before winning five straight points to open up a comfortable lead. The scoring run came as Rutgers-Newark committed three attack errors and one service error. Rutgers-Newark ddn't get closer than two the rest of the way.

The second set stayed tight much deeper into the game with the score tied at 24-24. Once again a service error by Rutgers-Newark started Mason's run. This time, Hudson Bates followed with a service ace and Rutgers-Newark's Eric Honsberger added an attack error for a 27-24 Mason lead. Byron Koff's kill cut the lead to 27-25 but Shaun Powell and Bates followed with kills and after a Honsberger kill, Powell closed out the game with a kill off an assist from Dave Egan.

The third game had all the hallmarks of a Rutgers-Newark rally, as the Scarlet Raiders jumped out to a 16-9 lead. Down 18-12, Mason rallied to tie the game winning seven of the next eight points. Bates had a kill to start the rally and Rutgers-Newark then committed errors on three straight attacks. Bates then added another kill to make it 18-17. After an Egan service error, Bates had another kill and Rutgers-Newark's Byron Goff followed with consecutive attack errors to put Mason ahead 20-19. From there the Patriots slowly built a lead that the Scarlet Raiders were unable to erase.

The Patriots (12-2, 6-1) got identical hitting performances from Felix Campos and Powell as each had 11 kills and four errors on 23 attacks for a .304 hitting percentage. Powell addded eight digs, three assists, two service aces and four block assists while Campos had four digs, one solo block and two block assists.

Bates continued his strong week with a match-high 17 kills to go with seven digs, one solo block and six block assists. Matt Steinfurth had seven kills and hit .500 to go with five digs and seven block assists. Egan added 45 assists, six digs and four block assists.

Rutgers-Newark (8-6, 5-2) was led by Honsberger who had 12 kills and seven digs. Goff added nine digs while Nick Manghelli had eight digs. Rutgers-Newark was held to just a .126 hitting percentage while Mason hit .278. Mason also had a 16.5-5.0 block advantage.