George Mason Cuts Men's Volleyball's Playoff Run Short

Perhaps the harshest reality of sports is the knowledge that, in tournament-style competition, the vast majority of players will end their careers with a loss.

The road to first place is a one-way highway, and for the lucky athletes who speed towards victory, the destination seems preordained.

But along this road, strewn in ruts and marshy puddles, lie the remnants of other teams. It is a landscape filled with role players, stars, and even superstars who differ in all respects except for one: the shared emotional heaviness that accompanies an unfulfilled goal.

Thursday night, in a playoff matchup against George Mason, the season did not end the way that Harvard men’s volleyball wanted it to. But it ended nonetheless.

With a spot in the EIVA finals on the line, the Patriots (17-11, 11-4 EIVA) stomped the Crimson in University Park, Penn. It took three sets and just over an hour, and by the time the last spike had rolled to a stop, one team was heading to the championship while the other was heading home.

“As a team, I don’t think we felt comfortable at any point in the game, which was very atypical for us,” captain Branden Clemens said. “Sometimes it’s tough to find your rhythm.”

The ship began to tip midway through the first set, when George Mason senior Paco Velez could not miss a serve. By the time Velez toed the line, the score was 16-8, and Harvard had already called a let’s-calm-down timeout at 11-5.

Still, with four consecutive aces, Velez turned a lopsided scoreboard into a surreal rout. The back-to-back-to-back-to-back performance propelled the Patriots to a 25-11 win in the set—the largest margin of defeat that the Crimson (13-11, 9-6) had stomached all season.

In that first frame, George Mason hit a scorching .591 and recorded more blocks than errors. Meanwhile Harvard recorded a .105 kill rate.

“That set was a beat-down,” senior outside hitter Alec Schlossman said. “It was just our serve-receive. We weren’t passing well at all in that first set.”

For the Patriots, Velez and fellow outside hitter Christian Malias each tallied 11 kills. Playing through 6’7” setter Brian Negron, who racked up 35 assists, George Mason eclipsed .400 for the sixth time this season.

That offensive efficiency shone through in the third set, when the Patriots used another set of service aces to pull away.

An attack error by Velez had closed the George Mason lead to 15-14, but the Patriots fought back with a kill from Radoslav Popov. Then, when Popov began to serve a few points later, he rattled off two aces that effectively put the match out of reach. The Crimson dropped the frame, 25-21.

“We couldn’t put it all together, I guess,” Schlossman said. “George Mason did a good job of keeping the pressure on us.”

Playing in the final contest of a decorated career, Clemens led his squad with nine kills on 21 attacks. Schlossman added eight finishes.

However, the team as a whole never gained traction after its muddy start. Sophomore outside hitter Brad Gretsch, normally a solid offensive contributor, racked up seven errors versus four kills. And junior libero Samuel Murphy, who had played a key role in last weekend’s competition, ended with four reception errors.

Yet no one individual deserved all the blame on an afternoon when the Patriots refused to relinquish the leads that they built.

In the second set, Harvard remained within four at all times after George Mason claimed a 6-5 advantage. But the lead never changed hands—not with Clemens serving at 9-8, Schlossman serving at 10-9, sophomore setter Marko Kostich serving at 12-12, or Gretsch serving at 13-13.

Ultimately late kills from Velez and Negron carried the day, delivering the 25-21 set to the Patriots.

“This loss stinks, but this one loss doesn’t represent us as a team,” Clemens said. “Nor does it represent [our] fight and overall charisma.”

In addition to marking the end of the season, the defeat marked the end of career for a trio of seniors—Clemens, Schlossman, and libero Alister Bent.

Every year that group has made the four-team EIVA playoffs. But every year the season has concluded the same way: with the inconsolable hurt of tournament defeat.

“It went fast, really,” Schlossman said. “These last four years playing for the team were some of the best moments of my life. I’d tell the younger guys, ‘Just enjoy it because it’s going to be over pretty soon.’”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.