Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (February 25, 2009) – The Vassar men's volleyball team started sluggishly but finished with a flurry and in the process won its tenth straight match of the season, sweeping Bard College 3-0 (30-24, 30-20, 30-21) in a NECVA Metro Division match Wednesday night at Kenyon Hall. Senior hitter Steve Micucci (Millis, MA/Millis) led Vassar, ranked No. 5 nationally in the Bison/AVCA Coaches Top 15 Poll, with 13 kills, while fellow senior John Kessenich (Chicago, IL/Richard Montgomery) contributed 10 kills and 11 set assists.

Next On Tap The Brewers will travel to Ramapo College for a key NECVA Metro Division Match against the Roadrunners. For directions to the Bill Bradley Athletics Center, click here.  Senior John Kessenich earned MVP honors of the NECVA last year at Ramapo.

The victory improves the Brewers to 14-3, 4-1 and sets up a pivotal division match at No. 8 nationally ranked Ramapo (17-2, 6-0) this Saturday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m. Bard, which was led by freshman hitter Nick Chan (Victor, NY/Victor) with a match-high 13 kills, drops to 10-7, 2-3.

Neither team was able to convert a high percentage of its attack attempts, as Bard hit just .009 for the match and Vassar .197. The Brewers did convert on their attacks when needed, fending off a Bard team that kept each of the three sets close and within six points until the late set stages when Vassar was able to capitalize on opportunistic offense and importune errors by the Raptors.

The first set was the most hotly contested with 12 ties, with the Brewers holding a slim 19-17 lead following a kill by Chan. A series of Bard attack errors and key kills from Vassar's sophomore hitter Evan Fredericksen (Menlo Park, CA/Menlo-Atherton) and junior hitter Phil Tully (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman) secured the first set. Tully, who came into the match with 288 kills, the third most in the NCAA Division III, finished with nine on the evening. Fredricksen added eight kills .

After 12 lead changes in the opening set, the match would play out in Vassars's favor in the next two sets.. Bard never led in the second set and only a kill with the score tied 8-8 by Chan in the third set gave the Raptors their only lead (9-8) in the final two sets.

Micucci, who hit .526 for the match, had eight of his 11 kills in the final two sets, getting five of them in the deciding third. 

Kills from Kessenich, Fredericksen and Micucci enabled Vassar to pull away from a slight 19-16 lead in the second set and cruise to a 30-20 win.

Chan had six kills each in both the second and third set to keep Bard actively in the match, but he didn't have enough support to push his team over the hump.

The third set was close, however, at 19-18 following block assists by Bard's Bruce Ormesher (Chicago, IL/Latin School of Chicago) and Luke Bolton (Durango, CO/Durango). The Brewers subsequently ran off 11 of the next 14 points, getting a deciding kill from Micucci to push ahead 26-21 en route to the 30-21 victory.

For Vassar, freshman Clifford Qunn (Hamburg, NY/Frontier Central) had a career-high 27 assists and senior Ben Coleman (Brookline, MA/Brookline) led all players with 17 digs. Ormesher had 25 assists for Bard.