FAIRFAX, Va. (April 7, 2010) - The Saint Francis men's volleyball team clawed its way out of a 2-0 hole, but were unable to complete the comeback and fell 3-2 (26-30, 18-30, 30-20, 30-25, 10-15) to the George Mason Patriots in Fairfax on Wednesday.
The match was the final EIVA Tait match of the season for the Red Flash, who finish 4-6 in regular season conference play. The Flash fall to 11-12 overall. George Mason goes to 6-16 overall, with a 3-4 record in the EIVA Tait. The loss clears up the EIVA tournament picture a bit; the Red Flash can finish as high as third or as low as fifth, as both Princeton and George Mason hold tiebreakers against SFU. A third-place finish for the Red Flash would mean a date with the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders of the EIVA Hay, a team they have already beaten twice in 2010. However, both matches went to five sets, and the Scarlet Raiders have been the scariest team in the Hay this season, even upsetting Penn State less than two weeks ago.
A fourth place finish would mean a rubber match between Saint Francis and Springfield, the team the Flash beat last night but with whom they split the season series. Should the Red Flash fall to fifth, they will lose the home match on April 24 (a fact that was incorrectly reported last night) and will have to face the fourth place team on the road on that same night.
The Red Flash had dug themselves into an early hole, falling behind 2-0 to the hot-hitting Patriots. Moreover, the Patriots were able to avoid the mistakes that plagued the Flash in the early going; George Mason committed just four errors (two attacking, two serving) in the first set, in comparison to the 11 combined of the Red Flash. Although the Red Flash took the first point of the set on a Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) kill, the Patriots would quickly take the lead on kills from Javier Perez and Andrew Dentler and then never looked back. The Patriots would stoke the flames and build their lead to 10-6 on a Lance Rogers kill, and were able to keep the Red Flash at arm's length for the 30-26 win.
While the Patriots only nearly went coast-to-coast in the first set, they did go all the way in the second, getting a fortuitous service error from the Flash to start the set and following up with a Shaun Sibley kill. Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) countered with a kill of his own, but the Patriots opened on a 5-2 run and would follow up with a 7-3 run to make it 16-8. The Patriots ultimately took the dominant set 30-18 on an Eric Lucas kill.
Afterwards, head coach Mike Rumbaugh said passing did his team in during the first two sets.
"We just didn't pass well," said Rumbaugh. "Not at all. [The Patriots] were able to use that to their advantage."
The Flash flipped the switch in the third set, though, put the pressure on the Patriots to finish the match strong. Freyer and Rivett got the party started with a number kills, and when Michael Kvidahl's attack error gave the Red Flash the 9-8 lead, SFU began to pour it on. It was all part of a 5-1 Red Flash run that culminated with a Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) service ace. The Red Flash would nail down another 4-0 run to make the score 17-12, with Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, PA/Huntingdon) (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) and Rivett ultimately putting away a pair of balls for 30-20 win.
The Red Flash started the fourth set on a 5-2 run, as Rivett and Varee escaped their early match daze to start laying the lumber to the Patriots. Varee in particular started the match in a hitting funk, but rebounded fully by the fourth set, posting nine kills, three blocks, and one ace in the stanza. Rivett added seven kills and a block himself as the Red Flash rolled to a 30-25 fourth set win.
Rumbaugh said the difference between the first two sets and the second two were night and day.
"We played much better, and made it a battle in the fifth set," said Rumbaugh.
In the fifth set, the teams traded points until Joe Norton of George Mason notched two straight to flip the court at 8-6. Now unable to trade points and needing to string together a run, the Red Flash fell behind and ultimately gave up a 5-1 Patriots run for a final score of 15-10.
Varee ultimately added 24 kills and set a new career-high with 20 digs; Rivett ranked second on the team with 22 kills. Freyer was one kill shy of a career-high with 16, and Tyler Mattera (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) recorded his second straight 15-dig match with 15. Libero John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) added 12 digs.
