NEW YORK – The Vassar College men's volleyball team, ranked No. 9 in the newest edition of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Tuesday, dropped a road United Volleyball Conference (UVC) contest at No. 12 New York University in the first NYU game ever played at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.

The Brewers jumped out quickly in the first game with a 25-20 win, but their hosts responded by winning three consecutive sets to take the 20-25, 25-22, 25-13 and 25-22 match. The Brewers, who have been very efficient offensively this season, struggled at the net especially during the middle two sets. During sets two and three, Vassar had 16 errors.

The night started well for the Brewers (11-3, 2-2 UVC), jumping out to an 11-4 lead in the opening set, capped by a kill by George Diehl. NYU went on a 4-0 run late in the set to cut Vassar's advantage to 21-18, but the Brewers fended off the charge of the Violets (6-6, 3-1 UVC) to take the early match lead. Senior Reno Kriz totaled six kills in the first set for the Brewers.

In the second game, VC jumped out to a 3-0 edge but NYU battled back and led by as much as three at 12-9. The Brewers responded with a 5-0 run, powered by a block and kill from Matthew Knigge, to regain their lead at 14-12. The host Violets wouldn't go away, earning seven of the next 10 points to take a 19-17 edge, an advantage NYU would hold the rest of the game.

Vassar would struggle in the third set, posting nine errors while siding out at a 33 percent rate to drop the third set and fall behind in the match 2-1. The fourth game saw the Brewers hit much better, led by the five kills from Kriz, but NYU was equally strong in the final game in outlasting VC for the match win.

Kriz led all hitters with 18 kills on the evening, hitting .263 for the contest (18-8-38), adding three digs along the way. Junior libero Trey Cimorelli paced the Brewers with nine digs, while sophomore setting Zechariah Lee added 33 assists, two aces and three total blocks. Knigge would finish with nine kills and three blocks, and Erik Halberg and Christian Lizana each had five kills in the loss Tuesday.

Vassar hit .153 as a team Tuesday evening, and committed 26 hitting errors as comparted to the 18 from New York University. The Violets were paced by the 14 terminations from Chase Klein, and Nick Benson added 11 kills and seven digs as well. Benjamin Oxnard chalked up a match-best 11 digs for the Violets, who hit .248 (45-18-109) on the evening. NYU also played strong defense, adding 10 blocks and edging VC in the dig column 39-26.

The Brewers will look to bounce back Saturday at 2 p.m., traveling to Springfield, MA to battle top-ranked Springfield College at 2 p.m. before finishing the day against Lasell College at 4 p.m. in non-conference action.