POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Elmira Men’s Volleyball team’s season came to an end on Friday evening, dropping its United Volleyball Conference quarterfinals matchup to the #4 seed and #15 nationally-ranked Engineers of Vassar College, 2-3. The Soaring Eagles, who took on the Engineers just two weeks ago, played the opposition much closer and gained a 2-1 advantage in the match before MIT went on to win the final two sets.
UVC First-Team honoree Alberto Mauricio ’25 paced Elmira with 22 kills on the evening, while Jordan Peiser ’24 and Edwin Sosa ’25 each posted 11 of their own. FrogJump Freshman of the Year team recipient Alex Vega ’26 recorded 11 kills on the evening, while Max Cohen ’25 recorded 43 set assists.
JUST THE BASICS:
SCORE: Elmira 2, #15 MIT 3
LOCATION: Poughkeepsie, New York | Kenyon Volleyball Gymnasium
TEAM RECORDS: Elmira (13-9, 2-4 UVC), #15 MIT (16-13, 2-4 UVC)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Soaring Eagles would gain early momentum in a big way, as the #5 seeded Purple & Gold earned an early 12-6 lead and wouldn’t look back, eventually taking the set 25-18. Leading 13-10 in the frame, the Soaring Eagles would use an Engineer service error to its advantage, before an attacking error followed by a service ace from Ryan Mattes ’23 put Elmira back ahead by six. The Soaring Eagles would eventually take the first set following a kill from Sosa to put EC ahead 1-0.
The Engineers would bounce back in the second to tie the match at 1-1, but it wouldn’t come easily as the two teams traded leads and found themselves in tied sets on multiple occasions. With Elmira leading 22-21, the Engineers would score four of the final five points on a pair of Soaring Eagle errors, to knot the match with a 25-23 second-set victory.
In the third, Elmira would find themselves increasing its match hitting percentage to .367% after posting a 25-21 victory and regaining its lead in the match, 2-1. Trailing 1-2, Elmira would score four consecutive points on kills from Peiser, Oscar Munoz Trinidad ’23, and Maurcio to gain the lead. MIT would eventually put together a rally of its own to tie the set at 17-17 late, but with Elmira leading 20-19, five of the final seven points on four kills would allow the Soaring Eagles to snatch the set, retaking the lead.
MIT would turn the…
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