CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – After a week off, the No. 14 Vassar College men's volleyball team returned to action at MIT on Saturday afternoon.  In their third United Volleyball Conference (UVC) match of the season, the Brewers (6-4, 1-2 UVC) suffered a 25-15, 25-20, 25-18 loss to the Engineers (8-2, 2-2 UVC) at Rockwell Cage.
 
Vassar built an early 3-1 lead in the first set, but MIT rattled off 13 of the next 15 points to go ahead 14-5.  After the Brewers cut their deficit to seven at 18-11, the Engineers went on a 6-2 run to reach set point.  Vassar fought two set points on a Ryan Duchemin (Maitland, FL) kill and a block by Duchemin, George Diehl (St. Louis, MO) and Kevin Ros (Bridgewater, NJ) before MIT closed out the frame, 25-15.
 
MIT started the second set with back-to-back Thomas Nelson service aces, and his third ace of the set put the Engineers in front 13-6.  The Brewers rallied back within four when Diehl's block made it 18-14, but MIT captured the next two points to regain a six-point advantage.  The Engineers took the set by a 25-20 count to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
 
In the third set, there were 11 ties and four lead changes.  Vassar went up 4-2 before MIT responded with a 5-2 spurt to take a 7-6 advantage.  The teams continued trading points until the Engineers used a 9-3 run to turn a 12-12 deadlock into a 21-15 lead.  MIT hit .519 (16 kills, two errors, 27 attempts) in the set, claiming a 25-18 win to finish off a straight-sets victory.
 
Jake Kaplan (Leesburg, VA) smashed 10 kills to lead the Brewers.  Diehl finished with seven kills on .385 hitting to go along with eight digs and four blocks.  Jefferson Waters (Hummelstown, PA) also had seven kills, while Ros dished out a team-high 26 assists.  Matt Usui (Rolling Hills Estates, CA) contributed six digs, as Vassar held a 23-21 edge in that category.  The Brewers hit .231 (35-17-78) as a team.
 
For MIT, Nelson led the way with 13 kills on .385 hitting.  He also had four aces.  Skylar Kaufman, meanwhile, ripped eight kills and hit .538.  Yize Dong distributed 26 assists to go along with team-bests of seven digs and five blocks.  As a team, the Engineers posted a .343 (34-10-70) hitting percentage.
 
On Wednesday, the Brewers travel to No. 7 Kean (12-3) for a non-conference match that gets underway at 6 p.m.