ELMIRA, N.Y. – It was a come-from-behind win for the Vassar College men's volleyball team, which battled back from down one after the opening set for a 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16) victory over St. John Fisher in the first of two matches in neutral site United Volleyball Conference (UVC) action on Friday at Elmira College. The No. 4 Brewers move to 5-2 (4-2 UVC), while the No. 6 Cardinals are now 7-4 (5-2 UVC).

In the opening game between the two nationally-ranked squads, St. John Fisher jumped out to the early advantage with a 25-19 win in the opening set. It was a close fought set with neither team leading by more than one until a kill from Fisher rookie outside hitter Jake Baker, coupled with an error by the Brewers, pushed the Cardinals out to a 12-10 lead. The advantage continued to grow to 16-10 until a kill from sophomore middle blocker Gavin van Beveren closed the gap to five (16-11).

Despite that momentum, the Cardinals continued to power through, capitalizing on 12 Vassar errors in the opening set, including eight attacking errors for the 1-0 advantage. SJF's junior outside hitter Josh
Bigford paced all players with six kills.

Second set action saw the Brewers find their groove, opening an 8-5 edge behind a kill from sophomore outside hitter Andrew Kim. Fisher did battle back to tie things at 17-all on a strike from sophomore opposite Matt Beiter, but down-the-stretch kills from junior outside hitter Jake Kaplan and van Beveren helped push the Brewers to the 25-19 set win and lock things up at 1-1 in the match.

Vassar saw van Beveren push his kill total in the match to eight to lead all players, while rookie middle blocker Colin Jones upped his total to seven through two sets.

Much as it began in the first two sets, the third proved to be another close one as the teams continued to trade points and keep things close. Paced by seven kills from van Beveren in the frame, the Brewers began to pull away late as Jones broke a 19-all tie, followed by van Beveren's strike to take a 21-19 advantage.

The Cardinals closed the gap to one (21-20) on a kill from Bigford, but strikes from Jones and van Beveren and Kaplan over the final stretch pushed the Brewers to a 2-1 match lead and a 25-22 set three win.

In the fourth – and what proved to be final – set, neither team was once again willing to relinquish a large lead as both kept things close throughout. Vassar finally broke through at a 9-7 score as senior middle blocker Ryan Duchemin laid down an ace, while the Brewers capitalized on a Cardinals attacking error to go up 10-7.

A beautiful strike down the center from Kim pushed the Brewers margin to 20-13 and it was Kim in the end who closed things down as he pounded down two more kills for the 25-16 set margin and match win.

Leading the Brewers in match one was van Beveren with a match-high 18 kills. He added four service aces and two block assists with eight digs. Kim posted 15 kills to go along with a match-best five service aces, adding two block assists and five digs. Jones also had an outstanding match with three kills and four block assists. Junior libero Matt Usui paced the Brewers with 13 digs, while Erickson added a match-high 39 assists.

For the Cardinals, Beiter had 11 kills and no errors on 24 total attempts. He also added a service ace and six digs. Bigford posted nine kills with a block assist and team-high eight digs, while Baker recorded 12 kills.

Match two between the Brewers and St. John Fisher is set for a 6:30pm start.