Men's volleyball loses quarterfinal matchup to George Mason

"The third time's a charm."

It's a familiar refrain. It's inspiring. It gives us hope in seemingly hopeless situations. Unfor-tunately for the men's volleyball team, it doesn't always work.

Going into the Eastern Intercol-legiate Volleyball Association playoffs Friday, the odds were heavily stacked against the Tigers, who would face George Mason for the third time this season. Having already lost to the Patriots twice during EIVA league play, Princeton certainly hoped to find the charm in round three, but such was not to be the case. On its home court in Fairfax, Va., George Mason (20-6 Overall, 12-3 EIVA Tait Division) claimed the quarterfinal match in three games, 30-27, 30-24, 30-23, officially ending the Tigers' 2001 season.

"It was a close game on Friday, but they just outplayed us," freshman setter Jason Liljestrom said. "Mason is a really solid team. For us to beat them we would have had to play our best game, and we couldn't quite put it all together."

From the outset, the Patriots held the advantage over Princeton — both in terms of prior contests between the two teams and in terms of overall season streaks. Not only had George Mason previously defeated the Tigers 3-0, and 3-1, during regular league play, but it had also won its final five conference matches — including a recent 3-1 upset of nationally-ranked Penn State. Princeton, on the other hand, had ended its regular season on a six-match losing streak — including a tough loss to Penn State last week, in which the Tigers lost in five games.

In the first game of Friday's match, the Patriots scored four consecutive points to jump out to an early 4-1 lead. George Mason continued on several multiple-point runs, extending its lead to 18-12 before the Tigers responded. Tooling the Patriot block, Princeton battled back to come within two at 20-18 — the closest it would get before George Mason finished the game off at 30-27.

The Patriots jumped to the lead in game two, thanks to aggressive hitting and solid defense. After two straight blocks, George Mason held its largest lead of the game, 21-13. Princeton then responded by scoring six out of the next seven points. The Tigers closed their deficit to three at 22-19 on a block assist by Liljestrom and seniors outside hitter Blair Anderson and middle Ryan Black. Again, however, the Tigers were unable to close the gap any further as they fell, 30-24.

The Tigers dropped to an early 4-1 deficit in the third game, as the Patriots continued to out-hit and out-block them at the net. Down 23-14, Princeton fired up to score eight of the next 11 points, tightening the game up at 26-22. But the Tigers could not maintain the momentum, earning only one more point before George Mason claimed the game, 30-23.

Hitting proved perhaps the most crucial component of the match, as Princeton could only muster a .260 hitting percentage in all three games, compared to the Patriots' .402 average. Sophomore opposite Dennis Alshuler led the Tiger attack with 15 kills. Senior outside and captain Steve Cooper tallied 10 while Liljestrom added 44 assists. On defense, senior opposite Kevin Roche led Princeton with nine digs, as Black had a team-high four blocks in the loss.

A lack of consistency was a problem that plagued Princeton Friday throughout the latter half of their season, particularly Friday night.

"I'd say that the whole team would agree with me that the last half of the season was pretty disappointing," Liljestrom said. "Whenever we had six guys on the court giving it 100 percent, we were successful, but we just couldn't get that effort on a consistent basis. We came close at times, but were ultimately never able to raise our status from bronze to golden."

Friday's match not only marked the end of Princeton's season, but also the last collegiate showing for the four Tiger seniors — Anderson, Black, Cooper and Roche — who will graduate this spring after four years of men's volleyball action.