No. 3 Men's Volleyball Comes Back To Defeat Princeton, 3-2, On Mueller's Record-Breaking Night
Boxscore
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Feb. 12, 2005 - Springfield College senior All-American
Brandon Mueller (Bartlett, Ill.) totaled a match-high 22 kills to become the school’s all-time leader in kills and lead the No. 3 Pride to a 3-2 (27-30, 30-21, 21-30, 30-26, 15-10) come-from-behind win over Division-I Princeton this evening in Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Tait-Division action in Blake Arena.
Mueller, who has compiled 1,416 kills to date, entered the match needing 11 kills to surpass the old record of 1,404 set by
Greg Lardo from 2000 to 2003.
Freshman swing hitter
Eric Palumbo (Churchville-Chili, N.Y.) chipped in 13 kills, while senior All-American libero
Eduardo Stawinski (San Juan, Puerto Rico) was credited with a match-high 19 digs for the Pride (3-6, 1-2 EIVA-Tait).
For Princeton (1-5, 0-3 EIVA-Tait), senior middle hitter Sean Vitousek led four Tigers with 10-or-more kills, compiling 15, while senior outside hitter Blake Robinson added 14 digs.
Game one was a nip-and-tuck battle throughout. Princeton built a four-point lead, 18-14, after kill from junior setter Jack Pichard. The Pride battled back, scoring five of the next six points, to tie the match, 19-19, after sophomore opposite
Neil Starzynski (Frontier, N.Y.) was credited with one of his seven kills on the night. The game continued to go back and forth and was tied, 27-27, until back-to-back Springfield attacking errors and a kill from Vitousek sealed the game for the Tigers.
Springfield controlled the tempo of game two from the opening serve as the Pride built up a ten-point lead, 19-9, after a kill from SC senior middle blocker
Matt Smith (Midlothian, Va.). Mueller’s record-breaking kill made the score 29-21, as the Pride never let the Tigers within nine points and cruised to the win.
Princeton copied Springfield’s game-two performance in game three. The Tigers went out to an eight-point lead, 21-13, after a Robinson kill. The Pride never got within nine points of the Tiger lead as Princeton rolled to the game-three victory.
Neither team could get a foothold on game four until, with the game tied 15-15, the Pride went on a 4-1 run sparked by a kill from sophomore outside hitter
Kevin Lail (Clovis, Calif.). Another 8-4 SC run, punctuated by a Lail service ace, pushed the Pride lead to seven, 27-20. Springfield had to hold off a late 6-3 run by Princeton to even the match at two games apiece.
The Pride took control of the final game, building a four point lead, 10-6. Springfield senior All-American middle blocker
Ricky Albano (Spencerport, N.Y.) slammed the door on Princeton with back-to-back kills to end the match.
SC caps off its nine-match homestand next weekend, hosting No. 2 New York University on Friday (Feb. 18) at 7:30 p.m., and Stevens Tech (N.J.) on Saturday (Feb. 19) at 7:00 p.m.
With seven national championships to his credit, Charlie Sullivan will enter his 15th season as head coach of the men's volleyball team in 2013. In 14 previous years at the helm, Sullivan owns an overall record of 224-155 for a .591 winning percentage. Read more.