POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – Senior Owen Wickens had 19 kills, junior Josh Weaver added 10 kills and sophomore AJ Burda handed out 31 assists and recorded 12 digs to lead the #6 seed Nazareth University Men's Volleyball team to a convincing 3-0 over #3 seed St. John Fisher Friday night in the first round of the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Tournament.
Nazareth (20-9) advances to face #2 seed NYU at 5 p.m. Saturday in the semifinal round of the tournament at Vassar College. Host Vassar will play #4 MIT at 2:30 p.m. in the other semifinal. The Saturday winners will play for the UVC Championship at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Nazareth victory snaps an eight-match win streak for St. John Fisher in the series with the Golden Flyers.
Nazareth won in three sets by scores of 25-21, 25-17 and 25-23 for the victory.
In the first set, the teams battled back and forth for nearly the entire set before a quick hit by Burda at the net broke a 21-21 tie, Wickens followed with back-to-back aces and Weaver ended the set with a kill as Nazareth scored the final four points of the set for the 1-0 lead in the match.
Nazareth had command in the second set early taking an 11-7 lead and extended the advantage to 18-11. The Golden Flyers used a pair of blocks by sophomore Nathan DeJoy and Weaver and kills by Wickens and Weaver to close out the set with a 25-17 score.
The Golden Flyers jumped out to an early lead in the third set leading 4-0, 8-2 and 18-12 before St. John Fisher rallied to come all the way back and pulled ahead 23-21.
A kill by Weaver and an attack error by the Cardinals tied the score at 23-23 as Wickens moved to the service line.
Another attack error gave Nazareth a 24-23 lead before Wickens sent a hard serve off the tape and to the floor for an ace to win the set and the match.
Wickens had 19 kills and a .326 attack percentage. Weaver added 10 kills and hit .500 for the match while Burda recorded 31 assists and had a team-leading 12 digs. Graduate student
Jonathon Jackson added seven digs and DeJoy led Nazareth with six blocks.