Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 MARCY, N.Y. - The SUNY Polytechnic Men's Volleyball Team (10-10, 3-6) suffered a pair of conference losses on Saturday at their home tournament, the second NEAC Crossover the Wildcats have hosted this season. They lost in straight sets to conference-leading D'Youville (11-4, 9-0 NEAC), but managed to take a set off of arguably the NEAC's best team, the Medaille Mavericks (10-10, 7-1 NEAC) before falling 3-1. The team is set to take on the Hilbert Hawks (1-18, 1-7 NEAC) tomorrow at noon to wrap up the weekend tournament. The Wildcats will honor seniors Dan Feltes (Burnt Hills, N.Y. / Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake), Justin Rich (Hamburg, N.Y. / Eden), Jeff Knapp (Hamlin, N.Y. / Brockport), and Evan Smith (Saugerties, N.Y. / Saugerties) prior to the match.
In the first match against D'Youville, A.J. Davids (Hilton, N.Y. / Hilton) led the team with 7 kills on 28 attempts while committing 10 errors.
Middle-hitter Bobby Nilsen (Bohemia, N.Y. / Connetquot) also played well, registering 6 kills on 10 attempts to just 2 erros, good for a team-leading .400 hitting percentage. Nilsen also tied Davids for the team lead in Block-Assists with 3.
Evan Smith (Saugerties, N.Y. / Saugerties) had 4 kills on 10 attempts, and Dan O'Connor (Latham, N.Y. / Shaker) had 5 on 22 attempts, to go along with 9 digs which trailed only the 12 of libero Justin Rich (Hamburg, N.Y. / Eden) for the top-spot on the team.
The Wildcats looked much better in the second match despite a similar result. They dropped the first 25-16 but were tied at 14-all midway through, then after falling in the 2nd set by the same score the 'Cats pulled out a 26-24 victory in the 3rd set to extend the match. Again in the 4th set the home team played well, even coming from behind to take a 20-19 lead late in the match. But the Mavericks, who were ranked in the top-15 nationally earlier this year, were able to slam the window shut with a 6-0 run to end the match, 25-20.
Nilsen had another nice match, amassing 6 kills on 11 attempts. He also had a great blocking day, which helped spark the Wildcats in the third set – he finished with 5 block assists to tie for the game-high.
Joining him on one of those assisted blocks was Nick Hagen (Hilton, N.Y. / Hilton), who led all players with 9 kills. Hagen was efficient with only 3 errors in his 17 total attempts for a .353 hitting percentage.
Zach Goggin (Feeding Hills, Mass. / Agawam) and Piotr Kasza (Mechowiec, Poland / Academy of American Studies) split time setting for the Wildcats in the match. Goggin finished with 21 assists and a kill, while Kasza had 10 to go with 4 kills.
The Wildcats will be back in action tomorrow at 12:00 pm (noon) for their final home match of the season.
