FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart men's volleyball took the first set but could not hang on in a 3-1 loss to George Mason in a matchup of fifth place teams in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Action on Friday night at the William H. Pitt Center. The Pioneers swung .258 in the 25-23 opening set win but would manage just .060 hitting the remainder of the match, as they fall to 4-5 in conference play and 6-13 overall. 

SHU finished the match with a .114 hitting percentage and could not slow down a George Mason (11-11, 5-4 EIVA) attack that hit .304. In particular, Paco Velez led the charge with 22 kills on .400 hitting, double any other player in the match. Radoslav Popov was the next highest Patriot with nine. Brian Negron was also double any other player with 44 assists and Johnny Gomez led the match with 17 digs. 

Joshua Ayzenberg, Taylor Bloomquist and Chris Johnston highlighted SHU's night, as each set new career-highs. Ayzenberg's 14 digs were his most ever in a four set match. Bloomquist set career-bests by playing a part in six blocks and also had nine kills on .500 hitting. Johnston hit .714 and had five kills, two more than his career total coming into the match.

Austin Arcala led Sacred Heart with ten kills. The Pioneers held a 10-9 advantage in blocks. 

The two teams will play again tomorrow at 7 pm. 

How it Happened

• First Set (25-23) – George Mason led by as many as four three separate times early, including at 12-8, but Sacred Heart came all the way back to take its first lead with the next five points, culminating with a Bloomquist service ace to make the score 13-12. The two teams traded the next 15 points until SHU finally had back-to-back points on an error and Arcala service ace for a 22-20 lead. GMU came back to tie it at 22 and 23 but a Bloomquist kill and Patriot error gave the first set to the Pioneers.
• Second Set (16-25) – Four straight points capped a 10-4 George Mason run to open the set and the Patriots never looked back. Sacred Heart did take the next three points and would get as close as three two more times after that, but the deficit proved to be too much. With the score at 14-10, five unanswered helped GMU put the set away for good.
• Third Set (14-25) - Tied 1-1, George Mason rattled off eight consecutive points on Bryant Ekstein's serve, four of which came on SHU errors, and the Patriots would run away with the set as the Pioneers could get no closer than six.
• Fourth (22-25) – Sacred Heart made things interesting in the fourth by jumping out to a 7-2 lead thanks to five straight George Mason attack errors.  But the Patriots came back with a 12-5 surge to take its first lead, 14-12, and would lead the rest of the way. Trailing 22-17, the Pioneers got as close 22-21 thanks to Arcala's third kill in a 4-1 run, but the deficit proved to be too much to overcome as a Velez kill helped Mason pull away with three of the final four points.