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Juniata men's volleyball unable to complete upset bid of George Mason
HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- George Mason men's volleyball hit. 357 while
out-blocking their hosts from Juniata College by a better than
two-to-one margin, as Juniata fell to the visiting Patriots 3-1 on
Saturday night at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.
Set scores for George Mason were 22-25, 25-22, 25-14, and 25-17.
Juniata dropped to 9-4 overall with the loss, while George Mason
improved to 8-2 on the season.
The Eagles' .227 hitting percentage was their fourth-lowest of the
season, while the Patriots had the second-best attack clip allowed
by Juniata this season.
Three Juniata players posted double-digit kill totals, led by
freshman opposite Alex McColgin (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) with 12.
Senior outside hitter Chris Vrooman (Baden, Pa./Ambridge Area) and
junior middle Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) logged 11
terminations each. Wolff recorded his 11 kills on 16 swings with
only one error, finishing with a .625 hitting percentage.
Juniata setter John Almquist (York, Pa./Central York) logged 42
assists. Junior pin hitter Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) had
seven kills for the Eagles, and led the offense at the net with a
hand on four blocks. However Juniata finished with only 5.5 total
team blocks on the night, a far cry from George Mason's 13.5 team
blocks.
Mason's Shaun Sibley paced the Patriots' blocking effort with
seven, to go with his eight kills. Mark Jones paced GMU with 24
kills on 45 swings - a .422 attack percentage - while Eric Lucas
and Patrick Maloney also tallied eight terminations.
The Eagles' lone set victory was in the opening frame, when a
four-point Juniata run resulted in the Eagles grabbing a 12-10
lead. Juniata slowly pulled away from George Mason from there,
finally finishing off the frame with a Wolff kill.
Juniata continues its seven-match home stand on Wednesday with the
fourth match in the sequence, a battle against sixth-ranked Stevens
Institute of Technology. Start time is set for 6:00 p.m. at the
Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.
