ELMIRA, NY (March 30, 2018) -- The No. 10 Vassar College men's volleyball team rallied from down two sets to one to No. 15 Elmira College, clinching a United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Tournament bye with a thrilling 3-2 win over the Soaring Eagles in action from Speidel Gymnasium in Elmira, New York. VC took the match with scores of 20-25, 25-21, 20-25, 28-26 and 15-10. 

The story of the game for the Brewers (17-6, 7-1 UVC) was its ability to slow down the Soaring Eagles (19-8, 5-3 UVC) offense late in the match. Vassar saw its host hit over .270 for each of the first three sets, but held Elmira to .065 hitting in the fourth set and jut .120 in the fifth to help enable the comeback victory. 

With the win, the Brewers moved to 7-1 in the United Volleyball Conference, and now can finish no lower than the No. 2 position in the regular season standings. Vassar can still host the UVC Tournament if currently conference leader Stevens Institute of Technology falls to Nazareth College Sunday, while VC knocks off Bard College Saturday. 

VC was slow to get going on Friday evening, a trend that has grown increasingly familiar for the Brewers of late. Vassar has dropped three of the last four opening sets in its matches, and on the season is now just 12-10 in the first game of contest. Friday saw Elmira take the opening set 25-20, despite Vassar posting a hitting clip of .333 and out-attacking its host 13-12. The difference was VC's six service errors, combined with Elmira chalking up four aces in the first game. 

The second set was the opposite, as Elmira hit .400 as compared to Vassar's clip of .233 but VC this time benefited in the service game. The game was tight at 20-19, but back-to-back points on a service errors and a kill from sophomore Kevin Ros gave VC the breathing room it needed to take the second set. 

In the third, Vassar chalked up 15 kills to just the nine from the Soaring Eagles, but 11 attacking errors doomed the Brewers, as Elmira fended off a late run from VC to take a 2-1 match lead. The fourth set was back and forth, and with the score 22-19 Vassar, Elmira rallied back to take a 23-22 lead. Senior Matthew Knigge responded with a kill, followed by a Ros kill to put VC up 24-23. 

The two teams alternated points for the four points until the score was 27-26, and freshman Ryan Duchemin hammered a service ace to seal the fourth-set win for Vassar and take the game to the fifth set. In the final game, Vassar hit .350 with no errors on 20 attempts, as Knigge had four kills in the final set to lead VC. With the score 14-10, Duchemin sealed the match like he did the fourth set with a booming kill to complete the comeback. 

Knigge posted a match-best 24 kills while attacking at a .347 rate for the match over his 49 swings, also posting two aces, six digs and three assisted blocks. Senior setter Zechariah Lee had a monster contest for Vassar, tallying 60 assists, the second-most in a match in his career. He also registered seven digs and two rejections as well. 

Ros finished with 16 kills on 39 swings, nearly chalking up a double-double with nine digs, and junior George Diehl finished with 12 kills, a team-high 11 digs, three blocks on .346 attacking. Duchemin added six kills and three blocks as well for VC, which hit .209 (65-32-158) for the night. Freshman Garth Verdeflor also added nine digs for Vassar. 

Elmira was led by the 39 assistsn and 12 digs from setter Jeremy Best, while Ryan McDonough and Jose Malave finished with 18 and 11 kills, respectively. Malave also posted 11 digs for the Soaring Eagles, which hit .220 for the match. 

Vassar finishes UVC action Saturday afternoon in Elmira, NY, taking on local rival Bard College (3-17, 0-7 UVC) at noon in Speidel Gymnasium on the campus of Elmira College.