HACKENSACK, NJ – The D'Youville University Saints Men's Volleyball team travelled to New Jersey to face off with NEC opponent FDU on Friday evening. The Saints fell 3-2 to the Knights in a tough fought match.

D'Youville University 2 vs FDU 3 – 23-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 7-15
Set One
Matchplay started close with FDU holding the close lead as they jumped up 8-7. The Knights continued to climb until they led the Saints 18-13. D'Youville turned it on going on a five-point run featuring kills from Ian De Wilde (Lockport, N.Y. / Starpoint) and Tymek Brzoza (Tychy, Poland) to tie the game at 18.
From there, the Saints offense kept the pressure on jumping out to a 22-19 lead after kills from Brzoza and Jacob Malak (Wales, Wisc. / Kettle Moraine). FDU continued to fight back and retook the lead at 24-23 before a final ace would give the Knights the 25-23 win in set one.

Set Two
FDU again took the close lead in set two jumping up 10-5. The Saints worked to stay in the game following kills form Tymek Brzoza and Haven Wankerl (Cross Plains, Wisc. / Middleton) to bring the score to 14-11 in FDU's favor.
The Knights continued to extend their lead jumping up 24-17 and after a final error from the Knights made the score 24-18, they would score the final point winning set two 25-18.

Set Three
After starting the third set with a 5-5 tie, the Saints took the lead, going up 10-7 after kills from Wankerl, De Wilde, and Brzoza. The FDU Knights fought back as the Saints offense kept going and the game tied at 14. Tymek Brzoza delivered another big kill to give D'Youville back the lead.

The lead continued to go back and forth between teams until a kill from Wankerl tied the game at 21 and a kill from Shaun Vattakuzhiyil (Sugar Land, TX / Elkins) gave the Saints the 22-21 lead. The Knights got one back, but Vattakuzhiyil would record one more kill and Brzoza would slam two giving the Saints the 25-22 win to stay alive.

Set Four
D'Youville carried momentum into set four taking the 9-4 lead following a kill from Ethan Robinson (Toronto, Canada). The Knights worked to comeback, but the Saints held strong on defense and back-to-back kills from Wankerl and Brzoza put the Saints up 15-9. The Saints continued to hold the lead as they climbed closer to 25. Vattakuzhiyil recorded the kill that put the Saints at the 24-20 lead and a final Knights error gave the Saints the 25-21 win in set four.

Set Five
The Knights found their momentum again in the beginning of set five jumping up 4-1. The Saints got one back following a kill from Haven Wankerl, but the Knights went on another run jumping up 7-2. After a timeout from the Saints, Ethan Robinson came back with a kill to put the Saints at 7-3.

As the Knights continued to climb, the Saints worked to stay alive. As the Knights reached 14, the Saints recorded a kill from Brzoza and a Knights error to make the score 14-7, and FDU would add one more to take the set 15-7 and the match 3-2.

Saints Stats
Randy Adorno (Bayamon, Puerto Rico / Winter Park) recorded a season-high 55 assists and 13 digs in the match while Tymek Brzoza led the Saints offense with 20 kills and the defense with 4 blocks. Shaun Vattakuzhiyil and Haven Wankerl both recorded four blocks of their own in the match.

Up Next
The D'Youville Men's Volleyball team plays their final road game of the regular season tomorrow at Long Island University in a big NEC matchup. The match is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM.