Box Score
Poughkeepsie, NY – On Tuesday, February 22, the men's volleyball took on the Brewers of Vassar College in a make up contest due to the weather during their original scheduled date of January 27. In a tight match that was pushed to five sets, the Hawks held their own as they swapped the first four sets with Vassar but could not outlast the squad from upstate even with a combine 36 kills from sophomore Braien Otsla and junior Eric Barty. The Brewers just got by, 25-19, 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 15-8 as they advance their record to 11-7 while the Hawks drop to 11-10.
In the first set, the Hawks went point for point with the Brewers for the first 10 volleys, but would never take the lead and only get as close as a tie. With the score 9-7 in favor of Vassar, Hunter let up three unanswered points, allowing their counterparts a bit of a cushion. However, it was short lived as an Eric Barty kill, on a set from freshman setter, Stanley Martinez, put his team within two points as they approached the 20 point mark. A series of Vassar kills and Hunter errors resulted in a 25-19 first set score in favor of the home team.
In the second set, again, Vassar got on the board first, but Hunter responded and stayed even through the first 12 points. A series of Brewer attack errors, mixed in with an Otsla kill sent the Hawks on a 5-0 run, giving them their first lead of the contest. The five point advantage was just enough as they held on to take the second set, 25-20.
In an intense third set, Hunter took a 15-10 lead, but it wasn't enough to put their foes away as Vassar came storming back to tie the game at 22 apiece. Still knotted at 25, an Evan Fredericksen kill followed by a service ace put the Brewers up two sets to one.
As the fourth set got underway, Barty got the game's first kill which gave his team the momentum needed to stay out in front and reach the 25 point mark first on 13 team kills and just three errors and tying the match two sets each. In the deciding set, the Hawks fell behind early on, 3-0 and had to play catch up the entire set, but the deficit proved too much to overcome as they wouldn't get any closer than within seven points, falling 15-8 and suffering their tenth loss.
Otsla had 19 kills and 10 digs while Barty posted 17 kills. Martinez tied John Konow of the Brewers for a game high of 52 assists. Marcin Polak and Sam Martin each added 12 and 18 digs respectively in the loss. Evan Fredericksen had the game high in kills with 27.
Up next, the Hawks will take on City Tech in their ninth conference contest of the season. The match is scheduled for Thursday, February 24 at 6:00 pm.
