POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - The #1 Vassar College Men's Volleyball team cruised to a 25-12, 25-12, 25-21 victory over Baruch in the First Round of the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championships on Friday evening. The Brewers win their 24th straight match and advance to tomorrow's Quarterfinal match against #9 Southern Virginia, who defeated #6 Springfield in five sets in the other First Round matchup.

Vassar raced out to a 9-1 lead in the first set as sophomore Billy Fan buried two kills along with winners from seniors Andrew Kim and Gavin van Beveren and freshman Tristan Christofferson. Another winner from A. Kim followed by a kill from Christofferson pushed the lead to 20-8 before a double block from Christofferson and senior Adam Gulick took the first set victory.

After a kill from Jack Centeno tied the second set at five apiece, Vassar created a 16-6 lead after two blocks from Christofferson and two from junior Jacob Kim. Junior Vaughn Ramsey buried two winners for the Brewers followed by kills from A. Kim and a block and a winner from van Beveren to cruise to a second set victory.

Five combined kills from junior Andrew Guaragno and Ramsey pushed Vassar ahead 12-7 followed by three more kills from Guaragno to give Vassar a 18-11 edge. Baruch then cut the advantage down to 18-17 after six straight points as Argjend Osmanaj and Akil Vaughn buried kills. Vassar answered with four straight tallies as junior Colin Jones and Ramsey each recorded a kill before Guaragno landed an ace. Senior Joseph Harrington tallied a kill followed by a winner from Ramsey to earn a three set sweep.

A. Kim tallied eight kills, two aces and five digs while Ramsey finished with seven kills. Guaragno recorded six kills and an ace along with Fan adding five kills and Christofferson registering five kills and four blocks. van Beveren finished with four kills and four blocks while J. Kim handed out 32 assists along with seven blocks and five digs. 

Haoxin Hu led the Bearcats with eight kills, two blocks and two digs while Centeno had five winners, two blocks and three digs. Ryan Oommen had 14 assists and four digs as Defeng Han tallied two kills and nine assists.

Vassar and Southern Virginia will face off at 6:00 p.m. at Kenyon Hall with the winner advancing to the Final Four in Owings Mills, Maryland next weekend.