Patriots subdue Tigers

While George Mason is best known for its recent run to the NCAA Final Four in men's basketball, its men's volleyball is the team that has been a national power. The No. 13 Patriots (20-5 overall, 9-1 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, Tait division) downed Princeton (6-12, 4-8) in three games last Friday in Fairfax, Va., 30-28, 30-24 and 30-28.

Freshman middle hitter Michael Vincent led the Tigers with 12 kills on an impressive .556 hitting percentage, while sophomore outside hitter Peter Eichler notched nine kills and senior outside hitter Jack Pichard tallied eight. Freshman setter Brandon Denham led Princeton with both 47 assists and six digs.

The two teams fought hard throughout the first game, and with the score at 29-25 in favor of George Mason, the Patriots held four game points and were primed to finish the job. But the Tigers did not yield readily, fighting off three of the game points before Vincent's potentially tying serve sailed long.

George Mason built an early advantage in the second game, but again Princeton did not capitulate, narrowing the deficit to two as late as 26-24, before four straight Patriot kills murdered the Tigers' comeback efforts.

Princeton struggled for much of those first two games due to the many unforced errors committed. The Tigers hit a woeful .186 attack percentage for the match, compared to .327 for George Mason.

"In the first 2 games we really beat ourselves," Vincent said. "We made so many mistakes, and didn't make Mason work enough for the wins."

Princeton led for much of the third game, as the Patriots did not grab their first lead until 26-25. Kills from Eichler and junior middle hitter Evan Pasion, as well as a block by Pasion and Pichard, gave the Tigers a 28-26 lead. Mason coach Fred Chao called a timeout to rally his team, and the Patriots came out of it swinging, winning the final four points of the contest.

Though George Mason is an extremely talented team, weaknesses in certain areas of the Tigers' game also contributed to the defeat.

"Blocking could have been a lot better," Vincent said. "The blocking that we did do really helped out a lot and really changed the pace of the game. A lot more of that would have helped."

Coming into the match, the Tigers knew they were going to face a tough opponent, but they used that to psych themselves up before the game.

"We knew we were the underdogs," Vincent said. "We knew we had nothing to lose."

Getting ready for playoffs

Princeton has a couple weeks of rest before it returns to action in the EIVA playoffs when it will most likely play the second seeded team from the lower EIVA division at home. Until then, there is work to do.

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"We'll be practicing hard until then," Vincent said. "We're trying to keep unforced errors down and service errors down. We'll be working a lot on precision hitting and blocking, things we really need to work on. We have the tools to challenge George Mason and Penn State and teams of that caliber, as long as we don't beat ourselves."

The Tigers showed that they can hang with George Mason — in a sport where the Patriots are not necessarily wearing Cinderella's slipper — and are just a few key points away from making noise in the EIVA tournament.