POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (March 4, 2017) – The Vassar College men's volleyball team moved to 7-1 at home this season, earning a pair of wins over ranked opponents in the process, defeating No. 11 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3-0 and No. 15 Juniata College 3-2 in action from Kenyon Hall. Vassar won with scores 25-19, 26-24 and 27-25 in the opener, before climbing out of a 2-0 hole to knock off the Eagles 21-25, 28-30, 25-22, 25-22 and 15-10.
 
With the wins, Vassar has now won eight of its last night matches, moving to 15-6 on the season. Furthermore, VC picked up its fourth and fifth wins over ranked opponents on Saturday, while the Brewer's 3-0 win over MIT pushed Vassar to 3-0 in United Volleyball Conference (UVC) action. It marks the best start ever in UVC play.
 
Another story line was junior Matthew Knigge, who became the all-time leader at Vassar College in assisted blocks with 294 in his career, passing Matt Elgin '13 and his 286 in his tenure at Vassar. Knigge had six in each match Saturday, and continues to lead the NCAA in blocks per set with 1.40 rejections a game.
 
Vassar 3, MIT 0
After the match, junior Zechariah Lee noted that the development of this year's team has allowed it to win "ugly" matches, as he referred to the win against MIT Saturday. Neither team hit over .200 for the match, but it was VC's eight service aces and nine blocks that proved to be the difference.
 
In fact, Vassar hit just .196 for the match, but was amazing in serve receive, allowing just one ace which came on an out-of-rotation call. In the opening game, Vassar tied the match at 15 on a kill by George Diehl, which propelled VC on a 7-1 run to pull away for the victory.
 
The second set saw the hosts take an early 6-2 lead, going on a 6-0 run after the Engineers (17-4) scored the opening two points. MIT would go on a run of its own though, rattling off five straight to take a 9-8 advantage. Vassar started to use its block, getting back-to-back-back rejections at 14-14 to take a lead of 17-14, extending it out to 24-19 after an ace by senior Christian Lizana.
 
MIT wouldn't go away though, posting five straight points to tie the set at 24, fending off five set points. In the end though, Vassar would get another kill by Diehl while forcing a hitting error to take the 26-24 victory.
 
The third set saw MIT leading for much of the set, forcing Vassar to use its second timeout at 19-15 after a kill by Tavish Smith. VC used the stoppage to reset, and posted four of match's next five points to trim the Engineer lead to 20-19. The Brewers finally pulled even at 23-all after an attack error, and earned match point after a solo block from Knigge. MIT denied Vassar of a match point at 25-24, but a service error and a kill from Lizana gave the Brewers the win.
 
Knigge led the Brewers with nine kills and eight blocks (two solo), while Lizana finished with eight terminations and five digs. Senior Trey Cimorelli was strong in the back with a match-best 12 digs, and senior Quinn Rutledge added seven kills, three digs and an ace. Lee also posted 31 assists, six digs and a block, while chalking up two aces. Every Brewer that played had at least one dig, while every non-libero added one kill as well.
 
Martin Krasuski and Skyler Kaufman each had 12 kills apiece to pace MIT.
 
Vassar 3, Juniata 2
Lee posted his first career triple-double against Juniata, and Vassar held the potent Eagle lineup to just 26 kills over the final three sets in storming back for a thrilling 3-2 victory. The story though was Lee, who was everywhere for Vassar, chalking up 40 assists, 10 kills and 13 digs.
 
The 10 kills were a career-high, while the 13 digs were his second-most in a match ever. In fact, since record keeping began in 2000, no Brewer men's volleyball player ever has accomplished that feat. He's only the sixth player in Division III to post a triple double this season.
 
After dropping the first two sets, Vassar trailed 20-18 in the third set before going on a 4-0 run to take a 22-20 lead. After a service effort, Vassar posted back-to-back points to make it 24-21, and eventually clinched the set on a service error by the Eagles.
 
Vassar would pull tied with Juniata in the four game, hitting a match-best for a set at .258 but it was far from easy for VC. The hosts led 12-9 after an attacking error from JC, but the Eagles rallied to tie the set at 18 after a mishit by Vassar. Juniata continued to charge, taking a 20-18 lead but the Brewers didn't falter. VC scored seven of the last nine points of the set, once again clinching the set on a service error by Juniata.
 
In the fifth game, the visitors started the game with two straight points but Vassar once again showed its resolve with six of the game's next seven points to take a 6-3 lead. VC opened up its lead to 11-7, but Juniata notched three straight to pull to within one at 11-10 following an offensive error by VC. After the timeout, the Brewers were locked in, getting kills from Brian Manley and Lizana to pull away for the win.
 
Knigge was once again stellar, chalking up a team-best 15 kills along with two aces, four digs and six assisted rejections. Lee needed just 14 attempts to get his 10 kills, hitting .643, and Diehl chalked up 10 kills, three aces and three blocks as well. Lizana added eight terminations and five digs, while Rutledge was everywhere defensively with 11 digs, two assisted blocks and two kills.
 
Cimorelli finished the second match with 17 digs, a season-high, and Manley came off the bench to add eight winners and two assisted blocks. Vassar hit .189 (54-26-148) for the match, while posting 10 blocks and winning the dig category 58-51. "We are pretty excited, the fan support was just fantastic," said head coach Richard Gary. "I think the guys really liked feeling that. Our energy was fantastic all the way though."
 
Quinn Peterson led all hitters with 23 kills for the Eagles (11-7), while Michael Young dished out 48 assists for Juniata.
 
--
 
Vassar (15-6) will continue its home stand at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening, hosting Marymount University in Kenyon Hall for non-conference play.