Mason Volleyball Trumps Harvard

By Broadside Staff Writer Fernanda Ferreira

The men’s volleyball team (13-15) downed Harvard University (11-8) in four sets (31-29, 31-33, 30-19, 30-26) last Wednesday and advanced to the quarterfinals of the EIVA Men’s Volleyball Championship.

Mason, the fifth seed during the regular season, confirmed their favoritism over the eighth-seeded Harvard University Crimson, even though the Crimson were willing to fight for every point. As the match started, the Patriots controlled over the score through the entire first set, but had trouble finishing it. The Crimson held strong by the end of the set, scoring six points in a row to tie the score at 29. The Patriots were not able to side out to conclude the set. After missing several opportunities to wrap up the set, a kill by junior opposite hitter Ben Nichols, followed by a Crimson error, ended the first set at 31-29.

Encouraged by a close score in the first set, Harvard stepped up their game. The Crimson took the lead on the second set 27-24. Mason came back strong by the end of the second set and tied it up at 27. Both teams kept fighting point by point to win the second set, but Harvard was able to wrap up in the second set in 33-31.
Losing the second set helped the Patriots get back on track as they controlled the third set. Senior middle Brandon McLaughlin, who had six blocks in the match, led Mason to a strong third set while Nichols led the team with 17 kills and junior outside hitter Luke Maloney followed with 14 kills. Mason held a double-digit lead and ended up taking the set 30-19.

Even though Mason controlled the match during the last two sets, Harvard kept fighting until the end. Senior middle blocker Brandy Weissbourd led the Crimson with 23 kills and junior outside hitter Erik Kuld added 16 kills. The Patriots concluded the match with the score of 30-26 in the last set.

By beating Harvard on Wednesday and the fourth-seeded Springfield Pride on Saturday, Mason advances to face off with the top-seed Penn State Nittany Lions on Thursday.

The Patriots finished the regular season with an overall record of 12-15 and went 5-7 in the conference. The team concluded their season at home with a 7-6 record.
Mason was 8-5 after they defeated the Princeton University Tigers 3-1 on Mar. 7, but the team lost 10 of their next 14 matches entering the first round match against Harvard.

Senior opposite hitter Kyle Gramit was named First-Team EIVA All-East last week. This was his third consecutive time receiving first team honors.

Gramit had 11 kills and five digs in the match. The senior opposite hitter leads the team with 468 kills and 50 serve aces this season. He ranks fifth in the country with 0.51 aces per set and ninth with 4.76 kills per set.

“During the regular season we progressed in different areas in different ways,” said Nichols. “We got to the point that we found the right chemistry, and we can focus on what to do.”

The win on Wednesday showed that the Patriots are on the right track in the playoff matches.

“It’s a new season now,” said Nichols. “We are past the regular season and ready to play hard during the playoffs.”

The EIVA Semifinals will be hosted at Penn State University’s Rec Hall this Thursday as Mason looks to pull off the upset.