Vassar Brewers Up Their Win Streak to Seven

POUGHKEEPSIE – The No. 12 Vassar College men’s volleyball team upped its season-best win streak to seven matches Sunday afternoon from Kenyon Hall, pulling into a tie for the top spot in the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) with a 3-0 win over The Sage Colleges with scores of 13, 20 and 21.

The Brewers (16-6, 6-1 UVC) are now tied with No. 3 Stevens Institute of Technology for the UVC standings lead thanks to Sunday’s win over Sage. Vassar still has two more UVC matches to be played, traveling to No. 15 Elmira College next weekend to battle the host Golden Eagles and Bard College.

Sunday’s match was all Vassar from the get-go, as the Brewers didn’t allow much defensively to the Gators, who were coming off the program’s first-ever win over a ranked opponent Saturday against MIT. VC scored the matches’ first six points, and then finished the set on a 8-2 run to take an early 1-0 lead. The second set was close until a flurry of George Diehl kills gave the Brewers a 20-14 edge. VC would claim the set thanks to a solo block from senior setter Zechariah Lee. In the third, Sage (9-13, 3-5 UVC) led as late as 19-18 after an attacking error from Vassar, but the Brewers powered back with a 6-0 run to claim command, as five of the six points came on Gator attack errors. Vassar clinched the match at 24-21 on Diehl’s 10th and final kill of the match.

Lee was strong for the Brewers in the three-set win, as he averaged nearly 13 assists per set while totaling 37 helpers, two aces and four digs. Senior Matthew Knigge chalked up 11 kills and jumped into No. 5 on the all-time kills list with his now 1,206 terminations, passing John Chasey’96 (1,204) and Dave Paine ‘02 (1,203) in the contest.

Diehl posted 10 kills along with his six digs, hitting .350 for the match, while sophomore outside hitter Kevin Ros hammered down nine kills on 16 attempts to supplement the Brewer attach. Freshman libero Garth Verdeflor led all that played with eight digs, and freshman Ryan Duchemin led the Brewers with three total blocks.

VC needed just 80 attempts on the match, finishing with 39 kills and 14 errors to hit .312 for the afternoon. Sage was led by Scott Sanders and his seven terminations, while Austin Laverty and Ryan Jennings combined to hand out 25 assists.

Vassar will be heading out to Elmira for the final two matches of UVC play, starting Friday evening at 5 p.m. against Elmira College.