April 27, 2006

Box Score

Detailed Box Score in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The St. Francis (Pa.) Red Flash upset No. 12 George Mason in four games in the semifinal round of the EIVA Championship Tournament to bring the Patriots season to an end. With the loss, the Patriots finish the 2006 campaign with a 22-6 overall record.

The Patriots won the previous three matches with the Red Flash this season, losing a total of only one game in those victories. Tonight's win marks the second time St. Francis (Pa.) has defeated George Mason, with the Patriots holding a 22-2 advantage in the all-time series.

Mason won a competitive first game 33-31. After an attack error by redshirt senior Bryan Newcomb knotted the score at 20, the game featured 10 ties and three lead changes from that point. With the score tied at 31, the Patriots finally stepped up and took control. Newcomb set up redshirt senior Shaun Powell for the kill to put Mason on top by a point. The Patriots closed out the game when freshman Shane Conley's set fell to the ground untouched, giving the point and the win to Mason.

In the second game, the Patriots held the lead at 11-10, but it slipped away when Conley set up junior Marc Honore for the kill to tie the score at 11. The Red Flash took the lead when senior Jim Fazzini put the ball away to put St. Francis (Pa.) up by a point. St. Francis (Pa.) never relinquished the lead, going on to win by a final score of 30-26. With the Red Flash leading by two, Fazzini closed out the game with two consecutive service aces.

The Patriots got off to a strong start in the third game, scoring the first three points, but couldn't hold the momentum, as St. Francis (Pa.) came back to tie the score at six. From there, the game was back and forth, with neither team holding a lead of more than three points the rest of the way. With Mason trailing by a point at 28-27 after a service error by Fazzini, the senior atoned for his error, putting the Red Flash up by two at 29-27. A Matt Steinfurth kill off a nice feed from Newcomb kept the Patriots alive; however, Marc Honore closed out the game with a kill to put St. Francis (Pa.) up two games to one.

Mason trailed nearly the entire fourth game, taking its only lead at 12-11. The Red Flash held a five-point lead late at 29-24. The Patriots attempted to mount a comeback, scoring the next three points to pull within two at 29-27, but it came too late as Fazzini's kill closed out the upset victory for St. Francis.

Powell led the Patriots with 26 kills, while Newcomb tallied 50 assists, and Steinfurth led the team with nine total blocks. George Mason had 15 blocks as a team, compared to seven for St. Francis (Pa.), but the Red Flash outhit the Patriots .293 to .279 in the match. Honore had an outstanding night for St. Francis (Pa.) with a match-high and career-high 29 kills and five service aces. Fazzini added 18 kills for the Red Flash.

The loss closes out the careers of seniors Newcomb, Steinfurth and Powell. Newcomb, in his one and only season as a Patriot, ranks third in career assists during the rally-scoring era. His 1,131 total assists is the fourth-highest single-season total in the rally-scoring era, and helped the Mason attack record a team hitting percentage of .328, which ranks fourth all-time at Mason. Steinfurth set a single-season rally-scoring era record at Mason with 181 total blocks this season. His hitting percentage of .404 ranks fifth all-time during a single season at Mason. For his career, he ranks first all-time during the rally-scoring era in blocks (494), fourth in kills (782) and fourth in hitting percentage (.387). During his five years in the program, Powell ranks first all-time during the rally-scoring era in kills (1,537) and aces (102). He also ranks second in digs (512) and fourth in blocks (267). In 2005, he set a single-season record with 477 kills and his 44 aces that year rank second all-time. His 470 kills this season and 32 service aces rank second and fifth, respectively, in the rally-scoring era. Powell has recorded four of the top five single-match kill totals in the rally-scoring era, with the top overall mark of 39 coming on Jan. 21, 2005 in a win over IPFW. He recorded his high mark of 28 this season in a three-game victory at Lewis on Feb. 4.

Third-seeded St. Francis (Pa.) will face the top-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions, winners of their semifinal match over Rutgers-Newark, in the final on Saturday, April 29 at 7:15 p.m. The match will be televised live on CSTV.