UTICA, NY (January 22, 2016) – The Vassar College men's volleyball team opened its season with a pair of four-set wins Friday evening, dispatching of Wentworth Institute of Technology in four games before finishing the day's festivities with a victory over host SUNY Poly. The Brewers knocked off Wentworth 25-17, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-23, followed by a 25-22, 25-23, 20-25 and 25-18 win over the Wildcats of SUNY Poly.

Vassar 3, Wentworth 1
Senior right side Reno Kriz (Breinigsville, PA/Parkland) finished with 10 kills to lead the Brewers (2-0), as Vassar knocked off Wentworth Institute of Technology (0-1), a team receiving votes in the AVCA Preseason Top 15 Coaches Poll.

Complete statistics were not available, but sophomore middle hitter Matthew Knigge (New Egypt, NJ/New Egypt) added nine kills while freshman George Diehl (St. Louis, MO/Lindbergh) tallied nine finishes in his first collegiate match. Junior Christian Lizana (Dublin, PA/Pennridge) supplemented the offense with eight kills, and senior middle hitter Erik Halberg (Newark, DE/Salesianum) also added seven successful attacks.

Vassar 3, SUNY Poly 1
The Brewers earned the nightcap win in the first day of the season thanks to some fine hitting from Knigge, who posted 16 kills on the match to lead all offensive players. Three players in all chalked up double-digit kill marks for the Brewers, who finished with a 58-38 difference in terminations in the match.

In the opening set the Brewers fell behind early and trailed 8-4, but VC battled back and knotted the score at 11 on a block by Knigge. VC totaled the next three points to take a 14-11 advantage, but SUNY Poly (1-1) responded to tie the game at 19. The set would be deadlocked once more at 21 after a kill by Kriz, and Vassar finished the game on a 5-2 run to earn the 25-22 win.

The second set saw the Brewers struggle offensively, hitting just .108 for the stanza, but their defense picked up the slack. Vassar College held its hosts to just six kills in the second set, forcing seven errors and a negative hitting percentage of -.040 to claim a 2-0 match edge. After SUNY Poly took the third set to pull to within a game, VC ratcheted up the offense to claim the victory.

In the decisive fourth set, the Brewers hit a match-best .370, connecting on 15 kills to earn the win. Vassar took a 6-2 lead in the closing set and led by as many as 10 points late in the game before coasting to the 25-18 win and 3-1 match victory. Knigge hit .700 in the win, while Kriz added 14 kills and six digs as well. Kriz finished the day nine kills short of 1,000 terminations for his career with his 24 on Friday.

Sophomore Zechariah Lee (Santa Clarita, CA/Saugus) was strong at setter, dishing out 49 assists to go with a team-high eight digs and two blocks. The Brewers got 11 kills, five digs and three aces from Lizana, and Diehl recorded eight kills while hitting .400 from the floor. Vassar hit .246 (58-28-122) for the contest, and also posted a 33-22 edge in digs for the match.

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The Brewers will be back in action Saturday afternoon, taking on No. 11 Kean University at 11 a.m. and Wells College at 1 p.m. in more action from the SUNY Poly Tournament in Utica, NY.