Feb. 27, 2005

Box Score

The George Mason men's volleyball team played its third match in as many days on Sunday afternoon and the lack of energy showed, both physically and emotionally. Unfortunately for the Patriots, the opposition had plenty of both as University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez handed George Mason its first loss of the season, defeating the 13th-ranked Patriots 26-30, 30-25, 30-27, 30-28 in front of a crowd of more than 800.

Mason jumped out fast in the match, taking a 7-1 lead in the first game and extending that to 20-12. But the Tarzans rallied back into the game, making Mason work to close out the first game. Mason hit .364 in the first game while UPR-Mayaguez hit .179. It was the only game in the match in which Mason hit better than .200 and UPR-Mayaguez hit less than .200.

The Tarzans did not fall into a hole to start the second game and they used their emotion, along with the emotion of a crowd heavily in their favor, to slam the door on Mason late, as they won 8 of the final 12 points in the game to even the match.

The third game saw Mason trail by three to four points throughout, until a late rally allowed them to pull to within one, at 27-26. But Ronald Rivera had a kill for UPR-Mayaguez and Shaun Powell committed an attack error to give the Tarzans game point. After a Powell kill made it 29-27, R.J. Goubeaux's service error allowed UPR-Mayaguez to win the third game.

Neither team led by more than two points in the final game until the end, when the Tarzans grabbed a 28-25 lead and held off a desperate Mason rally. The Patriots pulled to within one at 29-28, but a kill by Javier Feliciano sealed the match. The Tarzans were led by Feliciano's 22 kills and Joval Rodriguez's 58 assists. Hernan Rivera had eight blocks while Jorge Marxuach had seven blocks.

The Patriots had their worst hitting match of the season, hitting just. 209 as a team. Powell had a game high 24 kills and hit .326 and Goubeaux hit .700 on 10 attacks but they were the only Patriots to have any consistent success hitting the ball. Graham Sheppard finished with 11 digs, Hudson Bates had eight digs and Matt Steinfurth had two solo blocks and nine block assists. Dave Egan added 52 assists and seven block assists.

The Patriots (10-1) will return to action on Wednesday, when they travel to NCAA Division III No. 1 Juniata for a Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match.