BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 Poughkeepsie, NY – The men's volleyball team competed in a tri-match earlier this afternoon hosted by Vassar College. In the first match, Hunter came away with a 3-0 victory over Nazareth but fell in a tightly contested five set match against #5 Vassar. The split moves their record to 10-6 overall.
 
vs. Nazareth - W 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-18)
 
The Hawks dominated in nearly every statistical category, hammering home more kills (44-29), committing less hitting errors (9-19), earning a greater hitting percentage (.380-.109), serving up more assists (40-27) and collecting more digs (34-30).
 
Blake Hogan led the way for Hunter with 10 kills and a .474 hitting percentage while Christian Maisonet was equally impressive with nine kills and a .421 hitting percentage. Alec Helford had a game high 36 assists to couple his six digs. Defensively, Maisonet and Quendrim Shala combined for 20 digs while Cyrus De Guzman led the team in blocks with three block assists.
 
There were eight ties in the first set and through the initial 17 points, either side held more than a three point cushion. Two late Golden Flyer attack errors gave Hunter a four-point lead at 23-19 which ultimately proved costly. A Shala kill followed by a Nazareth miscue allowed Hunter to take the first set.
 
Leading 10-7 in the second, a 5-1 Hunter run put the Purple and Gold up by seven points which proved to be enough to carry them through to the end of the set. Hunter had some help down the stretch as eight of their final 10 points came from Nazareth errors resulting in a 2-0 advantage.
 
The Golden Flyers did not go away easy and pulled even with the Hawks at 12 apiece in the third. However, an 11-3 run was ultimately the critical point of the game that gave Hunter a late eight point lead. Sherrod Cole's kill gave his team the penultimate point and they closed with another Nazareth miscue to come away with the 3-0 win.
 
vs. #5 Vassar - L 2-3 (26-24, 25-22, 17-25, 15-25, 14-16)
 
Hogan once again led the team with 12 kills while Cole tallied nine, Shala eight and Maisonet with seven. Helford posted his second game high of the day with 33 assists. Meanwhile, Chris Scandole had a team high 14 digs in the loss.

Through the opening half of the set, each team traded points back and forth until three unanswered from Hunter, capped with a Shala kill gave the Hawks a 12-9 lead. Despite extending their lead to as much as five, Vassar fought back and knotted the game a 24 apiece. Shala and Cole hammered home back-to-back kills to give their team the 1-0 lead.
 
The second set was another close affair with the Purple and Gold playing from behind most of the way until they finally tied the game at 17. Three late straight points from the Hawks gave them just enough of a push toward the finish line as they got a little help from Vassar miscues to take the second set to go up 2-0.
 
Vassar came out with a rally that gave them 10 unanswered points in the third to go up 16-7 which ultimately proved costly for the Hawks. They were not able to recover from the deficit and dropped the set to their counterparts.
 
It was a similar story in the fourth with Vassar putting in an 8-2 run that Hunter could not pull themselves out of, eventually falling 25-15 to force a fifth set. There, Hunter came from down four early to knotting it at 14 apiece. However, the hosts had the final two kills to seal the deal.
 
Up next, the Hawks return to action on Friday, March 6 when they host #2 Springfield at 6pm.