March 22, 2008

Box Score

FAIRFAX, Va. - No. 11 George Mason used a balanced attack featuring three players with double-digit kill totals to dispatch of the Juniata College Eagles in three games (30-27, 30-24, 30-19) on Saturday afternoon at the Fieldhouse. With the win, the Patriots won their fifth consecutive match to improve to 14-6 overall and 7-3 in EIVA Tait Division matches.

Juniata College fell to 8-9 overall and 4-4 in EIVA Tait Division matches with the loss. With today's win, the Patriots swept the season series with the Eagles. The Eagles gave Mason a much stiffer test in their earlier meeting before falling in five games.

This time around, Juniata College couldn't solve the Mason defense as the Eagles were held to a paltry .124 hitting percentage for the match. The Eagles percentage declined in each of the three games, hitting a low of .080 in the third game. Meanwhile, Mason hit .320 as a team with a high of .364 in the opening game. The Patriots totaled nine blocks as a unit, with sophomore middle blocker Erik Lanham leading the way with seven.

Senior Mark Burik paced the Patriots with 13 kills on 24 swings (.417). Junior Hudson Bates and junior Kyle Gramit chipped in 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Sophomore Ryan Kwiatkowski totaled a match-high 40 assists. Gramit and sophomore Luke Maloney both finished with nine digs in the match.

Matt Fritz and Zach Wanner both recorded nine kills to lead the Eagles, who didn't have a single player with double-digit kills in the match. Wanner, Matt Werle and Anthony Damiano all tallied eight digs in the loss.

The Patriots return to the court on Friday, March 28, taking on Loyola (Ill.) in a 7 p.m. match at the Fieldhouse.