ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Nazareth got back on track in men's volleyball Saturday as the 13th-ranked Golden Flyers visited United Volleyball Conference rival Bard and came away with a three-set victory. Scores were 25-21, 25-23, 25-18. Nazareth also defeated Sarah Lawrence in a non-conference match by scores of 25-9, 25-8, 25-10.
The victory snapped a two-match losing streak and earned the Golden Flyers their first victory in conference play. Nazareth is 16-4 overall and 1-1 in the UVC. Bard is 4-7 and 0-5. Sarah Lawrence is 0-5.
Against Bard,
Antonio Sargent returned to the lineup for Nazareth after missing Friday's match at NYU and contributed 10 kills against just one hitting error on 21 attempts for a .429 hitting percentage.
Owen Wickens had 12 kills on 22 swings for a .455 percentage.
Trent Caviness had 33 assists and seven aces.
Nazareth was in control most of the match. Wickens had seven of his kills in the first set and Sargent and
Colin Donahue each had three. Caviness added three of his aces. The Raptors closed within 21-20 in the first set before Nazareth closed it out with two kills from Wickens, one from
Jonathon Jackson and a combined block from Sargent and Donahue.
The second set featured five more kills from Sargent and three from
Matt Zarzycki. Nazareth led 20-14 before Bard rallied to tie the set at 23-23. A Bard service error and a kill from Wickens gave Nazareth a two-set edge. Donahue and Wickens each knocked out three more kills in the third set and Caviness added two more aces.
Against Sarah Lawrence, Nazareth dominated from start to finish as Wickens combined 10 kills with seven aces. He now has 67 aces on the season to shatter the single-season Nazareth record of 57 held by Hall of Famer Robert Kraft since 2010.
Donahue added eight kills and
Alex Bertino had seven on eight swings.
Nazareth returns to action Wednesday for a non-conference match at Daemen at 6 p.m.