Nazareth Box Score

ROCHESTER, NY (February 12, 2010) – The Vassar men's volleyball team split its opening matches at the Nazareth Invitational on Friday. The defending champion Brewers defeated Eastern Mennonite University 3-0 (30-25, 30-26, 30-26) to open play and then fell to host Nazareth 3-1 (23-30, 23-30, 30-25, 20-30) in the second match. 

The No. 10 nationally ranked Brewers, now 6-4 on the season will face SUNY New Paltz on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Vassar's final opponent at 2:00 p.m. will be determined by the outcome of the previous three matches. Nazareth, ranked No. 15 nationally, improves to 3-6 on the season, and will face Eastern Mennonite on Saturday. 

Earlier this season, Vassar defeated SUNY New Paltz 3-2 in a classic match between the schools. The match was highlighted by a 46-44 New Paltz win in the fourth set, the third longest set in NCAA history.
In the nightcap against Nazareth, the Brewers never could get untracked, trailing in each of the first two sets before piecing together a strong third set to make the match interesting. Nazareth broke out fast in the fourth and final set, and took advantage of seven Vassar attack errors and just eight kills. 

Against Nazareth, the Brewers were plagued by untimely hitting errors, and managed only a .205 attack percentage for the match. Senior Phil Tully led the way with 19 kills, junior Evan Fredericksen had 11 kills and improving sophomore Lucas Rathjens had eight kills. Freshman John Konow had 41 of Vassar's 42 set assists and fellow freshman Christian La Du had 12 digs. 

Nazareth, which was buoyed by a .475 hitting percentage – only 11 attack errors on 120 attempts – had four players tally double figures in kills: Robert Kraft with 16 kills, Chris Mendez with 14, Hans Schroder added 13 and Billy Gimello with 12. EJ Wells-Spicer had 45 set assists and 11 digs.
Vassar's best set, the third, saw the Brewers hit .469. 

In the opening round win over Eastern Mennonite, Fredericksen keyed the win with a dozen kills.