Eastern Mennonite Box Score

UC Santa Cruz Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY (February 14, 2009) – In an effort reminiscent of the Vassar's men's volleyball team's play at last year's Molten Invitational National Championships, the Brewers won both of their Saturday matches at the Nazareth Tournament, most notably defeating the AVCA/Bison No. 2 ranked UC Santa Cruz in three straight sets. Vassar opened play with a noon victory over Eastern Mennonite 3-1 (30-25, 30-22, 30-32, 30-22) and then stormed past UC Santa Cruz 3-0 (30-27, 30-26, 30-28). The Brewers were led by the play of senior John Kessenich (Chicago, IL/Richard Montgomery) who was named Most Valuable Player of the event after accumulating 195 (13.0 per game) set assists. Fellow senior Steve Micucci (Millis, MA/Millis) was named to the All-Tournament Team following his 57 kills in the four games.

Now 8-3 on the season and riding a four game winning streak, the Brewers will host College of Mount St. Vincent on Wednesday, February 18 at Kenyon Hall starting at 7:00 p.m. Vassar will host its annual tournament at the Athletics & Fitness Center on Friday and Saturday.

In the opening match against Eastern Mennonite, the Brewers were never seriously challenged, hitting .462 as a team (76-15-132) with Kessenich leading the way with 62 set assists. Micucci had a phenomenal match with 22 kills with only three attack errors, a .633 hitting percentage. Three other Brewers had double figures in kills with sophomore Evan Fredericksen (Menlo Park, CA/Menlo Atherton) collecting a season high 19 kills and hitting .422. Junior Phil Tully (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman) had 16 kills and senior Greg Maier (Millis, MA/Millis) had 10 kills. Another of Vassar's talented seniors, libero Ben Coleman (Brookline, MA/Brookline) led the team with 12 digs.

The Santa Cruz victory was similar to last year's sweep in the semifinals of the Molten Invitational National Championships at Springfield College. Santa Cruz had difficulty defending Vassar's multi-faceted offense, which was driven by the play of Fredericksen and Tully.

The Brewers went down 18-16 in the opening set, were able to tie the set at 20-20 following a huge block by Tully and then pulled away. In the next two sets, Vassar jumped out in front and maintained control. In the second set, the Brewers led 18-13 and went on a run led by the serving of Coleman. Santa Cruz was able to make the third set close, but had fallen too far behind to earn a victory.

Fredericksen had an amazing match against Santa Cruz, collecting 16 kills with only one error on 21 attempts. His .714 attack percentage was the best of his young career and set the tone for the Brewers hitting .440 for the match. Tully had 12 kills in the match with Maier adding seven.