FAIRFAX, Va. \u2014\u00a0The George Mason Men’s Volleyball team won the first game of a two-game series against Manhattan, 3-1, on Friday evening at the Recreation Athletic Complex (RAC). After dropping the first set 20-25, the Patriots won the next three sets 25-23,-25-21 and 26-24.<\/p>\n
PATRIOT POINTS<\/p>\n
\nFriday evening’s game featured high-octane offenses, four thirty-second long rallies,\u00a0back-to-back successful challenges from both sides (on one point)\u00a0and a final set that needed extra playing time.\u00a0George Mason (4-4, 0-0 EIVA) showcased a dynamic offense with a total of 53 kills and held strong at the net with 10 total blocks, while Manhattan\u00a0(2-7, 0-0 NEC) edged the Patriots in blocks with 11.<\/p>\n SET 1: GMU – 20, Manhattan – 25 However, the Jaspers kept a slight lead with kills from Jovan Marjanovic and Kai Patchell, both assisted by Drew Blonski. Despite a strong push from the Patriots, getting as close as 20-19, Manhattan clinched the set with a 5-1 run, with a service ace from Nowak sealing the deal.<\/p>\n SET 2: GMU – 25, Manhattan – 23 Weltin delivered several kills and aces, including a crucial service ace at 24-22 that paved the way for the final point. When the Patriots scored what they thought was the set-sealing 25th point, Manhattan challenged for a potential hitting error and were successful, reversing the score to 24-23 in slim favor of the Patriots.<\/p>\n Despite strong efforts from Owens and Blake Perkins on Manhattan’s\u00a0side, Weltin closed out the set with a\u00a0kill from a Zahariev assist.<\/p>\n SET 3: GMU – 25, Manhattan – 21 The Patriots pulled away with decisive plays, including a key Weltin solo block at 24-20. Evangelista finished the set with a kill, securing a 25-21 win for George Mason.<\/p>\n SET 4: GMU – 26, Manhattan – 24 After a lengthy rally, the Patriots scored their second point of the set, to which Manhattan challenged for a potential Patriot touch. Upon further review, the call was reversed, giving the Jaspers a 5-1 advantage. However, Coach Jay Hosack<\/a> subsequently challenged for a potential net call. After a second round of reviews on the same point, George Mason successfully won their challenge, thus reversing the score again to 4-2.<\/p>\n The Patriots steadily closed the gap. Consistent scoring from Weltin and Evangelista, along with a service ace, helped regain control. As the set tightened, George Mason took advantage of Manhattan’s errors, including a crucial ball handling error by Blonski. Despite the Jaspers’ late comeback attempt that tied the score at 23-23, back-to-back kills from Weltin and Evangelista sealed the victory for the Patriots.<\/p>\n COACH’S CORNER UP NEXT
\n\tSophomore pin hitter pin hitter Aidan Weltin<\/a> had a career night, totaling 21 kills in his four sets played. He broke his\u00a0previous record of 17 against LIU on March 1st, 2025<\/a>.
\n\tJunior outside hitter Robert Evangelista<\/a> had 16 kills on the night, close to matching his career-high of\u00a017 that was also set last season against LIU.
\n\tThe Patriot defense recorded 10 total blocks, with solo blocks coming from Weltin, Alexander Lillie<\/a>, Georgi Zahariev<\/a> and Elijah Lazor<\/a>
\n\tGeorge Mason has now won four of their last five games.
<\/p>\n
\nThe Jaspers\u00a0got out the gate with a blistering start and never let up, finishing with a .684 hitting percentage compared to the Patriots’ .320. The first set kicked off with a service error by Wojtek Nowak, giving the Patriots an initial advantage. Manhattan quickly countered with a kill from Kasen Owens to even the score. Aidan Weltin<\/a> was a standout for George Mason, scoring multiple points with kills set up by Georgi Zahariev’s<\/a> assists.<\/p>\n
\nThe Patriots bounced back in the second set, edging out a 25-23 victory. Although Manhattan’s\u00a0attacking percentage cooled down, the Jaspers’ attacking percentage was firing off at a clip of .510 compared to the Patriots .300.\u00a0However, service errors were frequent on both sides, adding tension to the tightly contested set.<\/p>\n
\nIn the third set, the Patriots kept the momentum with an early lead, starting with a kill by Robert Evangelista<\/a>, assisted by Zahariev. The Weltin and Zahariev\u00a0tandem continued, with Weltin contributing crucial kills at 6-4 and 14-9. Manhattan chipped away and closed the gap to 17-19 after a 4-0 run, with Blonski and Patchell playing key roles in their comeback.<\/p>\n
\nThe fourth set was a nail-biter, with George Mason narrowly defeating Manhattan 26-24. Evangelista was vital for the Patriots, starting and ending the set with key kills. Manhattan gained early momentum with a service ace and capitalized on George Mason’s attack errors to take a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n
\n“Manhattan is a good team, and they brought good service pressure all night tonight,” said head coach Jay Hosack<\/a>.\u00a0“I thought we gritted out a tough win, but we have to be cleaner in our serve-receive if we are going to feel confident with our offense like we normally do.”<\/p>\n
\nGeorge Mason will close out the three-week long homestand\u00a0tomorrow, February\u00a07th, as the Patriots and Jaspers will face off a final time at the RAC beginning at 5 p.m. Live stats can be found here<\/a> and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAIRFAX, Va. \u2014\u00a0The George Mason Men’s Volleyball team won the first game of a two-game series against Manhattan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-125944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}