GLENSIDE, PA – The Vassar men's volleyball team picked up its sixth win in a row following a 2-0 weekend at the Arcadia Tri-Match on Saturday. The Brewers first defeated No. 7 Juniata in a five-set thriller (20-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-6). Then, Vassar bested No. 10 Arcadia in four sets (25-20, 25-12, 12-25, 25-15).

After dropping the first two sets, the Brewers won the next three to pull off the 3-2 victory against the Eagles. Vassar fell 20-25 in the first set and lessened the gap to 23-25 in the second. The Brewers played from behind in the second set, never taking the lead. A kill from Jefferson Waters cut the lead to 21-22, but Juniata scored the next two. Ryan Duchemin knocked in a kill to make it 22-24, although it was the Eagles owning the set.

Vassar flipped the script in the third, winning 25-20. The Brewers jumped out to a 6-4 lead following a Waters' kill. A 4-0 span with kills from Gavin van Beveren, Andrew Kim, and Waters pushed the lead to 17-11. Some back-and-forth scoring happened in the final five points, but it was Waters hitting in the last kill.

The Brewers fell behind early in the fourth but regained their composure to tie it 8-8 after a kill from Kevin Ros. Two more ties followed until two Eagles' errors, and an ace by van Beveren made the lead 14-11. Vassar appeared to take over for a while, but Juniata was not done yet, tying the set 20-20. While the game remained close, it was Ros tallying the last kill.

In their first fifth set of the season, Vassar played aggressive, taking an 8-3 lead. Ros made five kills, and it was Steven Koja hitting in the game-winner.

Ros led the team with 16 kills and added nine digs with one ace. Duchemin had 13 kills with a 54.5 hitting percentage. He also made four block assists. Kim made ten kills, while Waters and van Beveren each had nine. Koja finished with 48 assists.  

In the second match of the day, Vassar opened the first set 5-1. Kills from Jake Kaplan and Ryan Duchemin put the Brewers up 9-5 over the Knights. After an Arcadia run to cut the lead to two, Vassar scored four unanswered with kills by Ros and Duchemin to take a 16-10 lead. Vassar controlled from there, but the Knights came back to make it 21-19. A final kill by Ros gave the set win.

There were eight ties in the second set, but a 6-2 run by the Brewers put them up 20-16. Vassar then closed the game out 3-0 with one kill coming from Kim. Vassar stumbled in the third set, falling 12-25, before rebounding with a solid 25-15 final set victory. After a reasonably close bout, the set was 14-12 in favor of Vassar. The Brewers then went 11-3 to finish out the day.

Ros led the team with 17 kills and also had ten digs and three aces. Duchemin tallied 12 kills on a 73.3 hitting percentage and also had a solo block. Kim recorded 11 kills with three aces. Matt Usui had a team-high 13 digs, while Koja made 35 assists.

As a team, Vassar had a 25.9 kill percentage opposed to Arcadia's 24.2 percent.

The Brewers travel across the Hudson River next to face No. 1 New Paltz on Wed. Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.