April 8, 2006

Box Score

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FAIRFAX, Va. - No. 13 George Mason sent off its seniors with a win over Rutgers-Newark on Senior Day at John Linn Memorial Gym. With the win, the Patriots improve to 21-5 on the season and 10-1 in EIVA Tait Division action, while the Scarlet Raiders fall to 9-17, and 5-7 in conference play.

The senior class of Bryan Newcomb, Matt Steinfurth and Shaun Powell all played pivotal roles in the Patriots' four-game victory. Newcomb recorded a match-high 58 assists, and tallied his 1,000th career assist in the win. In his first season at Mason, the native of Richmond, Va. has tallied enough assists to rank third in the school's all-time rally-scoring era record book for career assists with 1,041 after Saturday's match. Steinfurth, who leads the nation in blocks per game this season, had six total blocks in the contest and hit .636 with eight kills on 11 attacks. He is the career leader in blocks per game at Mason during the rally-scoring era, and ranks fourth in kills and hitting percentage. Powell, the career leader at Mason during the rally-scoring era in kills and aces, had 20 kills, five digs and an ace on Saturday. He also ranks second all-time during the rally-scoring era in digs and fourth in blocks.

Rutgers-Newark tried its hardest to spoil the day for the Patriots' senior class, coming back from a 29-26 deficit and shaking off four game points from Mason to win the first game 33-31. After the loss, the Patriots' regrouped and easily took the next game 30-19 to even the score at one game each.

In game three, Mason's attack was on fire, hitting .640 as a team. Rutgers-Newark also hit well, posting a .393 mark as a team, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Patriots won the game 30-24. The Scarlet Raiders were much more competitive in the fourth game, and after staying close throughout, trailed Mason by three points at 28-25. With the Patriots on the brink of closing out the match, Rutgers-Newark scored the next three points on back-to-back kills by juniors Eric Honsberger and Danny McGowan, and an attack error by Mason sophomore Hudson Bates, who despite the error finished with a match-high 22 kills. With the score tied at 28, Powell put away his final kill of the match on a nice feed from Newcomb to put the Patriots up by a point. Junior R.J. Goubeaux then closed out the match with an ace.

The Patriots hit .417 in the match, compared to .345 for the Scarlet Raiders and totaled 16 blocks as a team against only 6.5 for Rutgers-Newark.

George Mason's final regular season match is scheduled for April 15 at 7 p.m. against Juniata at John Linn Memorial Gym. Next weekend's match is the UV Memorial Match, held in honor of Patriots' legend Uvaldo Acosta, a three-time All-American at George Mason, who also served as a coach at the university following his playing days. Acosta died in a tragic swimming accident in Hawaii in 1998 while coaching the men's team.