ROCHESTER, NY - The Golden Flyers finished the weekend 2-1 after dropping a Sunday afternoon game to nationally ranked NYU 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-20).
The Golden Flyers now have an overall record of 16-10 and a conference record of 3-2 while NYU improves to 23-0 overall and 7-0 in the UVC.
The first set started very back and forth, neither team leading by more than three until NYU went on a 5-0 run when the Violets were up one to earn a six point lead at 16-10. The Golden Flyers were able to bring it back to two at 17-15, but Nazareth could not quite come back from the deficit, dropping the first set 25-20.
In the second set, the two teams were even right up until the last few points of the set. Down 21-18, the Golden Flyers put up two kills from
Josh Weaver and
Max Stuver to close the gap to one. Following a Nazareth attack error, Stuver had another kill to bring the set score to 22-21. Close to a comeback, the Golden Flyers allowed the Violets to score three consecutive points to end the set at a score of 25-21 in favor of NYU.
In the third set, the Golden Flyers were down 10-7 when they were able to go on a run of four complete with two aces from Wickens and a kill from Weaver on top of an NYU error to take the lead for the first time since the first point of the set. NYU quickly regained the lead with a run of three. Though Nazareth tied up the set twice more, the Golden Flyers were never able to steal back that lead, and the game concluded with a final set score of 25-20.
As a team, the Golden Flyers had an attack percentage of .082 on 33 kills. Weaver led the offense with ten kills, while Wickens led the defense with eight digs as well as tallying nine kills, two blocks, two assists, and a team-high four aces.
AJ Burda led the team in assists with 23 and also popped up eight digs.
Alex Bertino threw down eight kills and had two aces. Freshman
Ryan Murphy led the team in blocks with three.
Max Stuver was also credited with four assists and one block.
The Golden Flyers will be back in action on March 28th at St. John Fisher at 7 p.m. for some more conference action.
