ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Geneva men's volleyball team made the trip up to Rochester, New York Thursday morning for a tri-match hosted by Division II Roberts Wesleyan. The GTs swept Houghton in their first match of the day, 25-22, 25-14, 25-18, before suffering a sweep at the hands of the hosts RWU 23-25, 16-25, 20-25. Following the split, the men's record now stands at 3-5 on the young season.

The first set began very closely, with an ace by junior Evan Puhl giving the GTs a 4-2 lead early on. Houghton hung around, keeping the score close at 12-10 midway through the set, but Geneva scored five consecutive points after that to go up 17-10. A big block from sophomore Daniel Spear and freshman Sho Larrabee, followed by an ace off the hand of freshman Matthew DeGraaf, gave the men a commanding 20-13 lead. Houghton did not lie down, however, and the Highlanders went on an 8-2 run to bring score within one point, 22-21. Fortunately, Geneva recovered, and the Golden Tornadoes won the set 25-22.

A kill from junior Andrew Ubinger got things started off for Geneva in set two, and some error-filled Houghton play let the GTs build a 10-5 lead. Houghton rallied to knot the score at 12 despite a couple of kills from sophomore Owen Kelley and Ubinger, but back-to-back Puhl kills seemed to reset Geneva. The men proceeded to go on a 10-1 run make the score 22-13, and DeGraaf ended the set with a nice ace to give Geneva the set victory 25-14.

The Highlanders jumped out to a 5-1 advantage at the beginning of set three before a Kelley kill ended the run. Another ace from DeGraaf gave Geneva its first lead of the set, 7-6, and that ended up being part of an 8-1 stretch for the Golden Tornadoes. A couple of Ubinger kills made the score 13-7, and the men kept control from there on out. Houghton briefly pulled back within three points, 18-15, but a DeGraaf kill made the score 20-16 in Geneva's favor. DeGraaf landed yet another ace to get Geneva within one point of the victory, and Spear sealed the deal for the GTs with a kill to give them a three-set win.

Geneva played Division II Roberts Wesleyan tightly through the opening points of set one, using a couple of Ubinger kills to go in front 13-10. The Redhawks came back to tie the score at 14, but another Ubinger kill prompted three consecutive scores for the men, and they retook the lead 17-14. Again, RWU came back to tie the set at 17, and the two schools went back-and-forth over the next several points. The Redhawks managed to sneak ahead, 23-21, and despite two late kills from Puhl and Kelley, the home side took the set win 25-23.

The men jumped ahead to a 7-3 lead in the second set thanks to a couple of kills by Kelley and DeGraaf as well as an ace from the freshman. RWU came all the way back to tie it, however, and continued on a 12-2 run to take command, 15-9. A few points later the Redhawks went on another 7-2 stretch, and they won the second set handily, 25-16.

There was not much to separate either side from the other at the start of set three until Roberts eventually snatched a 10-6 advantage. The Golden Tornadoes stuck around over the next few minutes thanks to two more Ubinger kills, but they could not take the lead until three straight attack errors by the Redhawks sent the men in front 16-15. RWU responded well with four points in a row and rode out the rest of the set for a 25-20 win.

Ubinger posted a team-high nine kills for Geneva against RWU, and finished with an impressive .318 hitting percentage on 22 total attacks. Freshman Colton Alfaro, back from injury, directed the attack with 18 assists, while senior libero Joshua Sangrey dug out a game-high nine balls. Spear was also strong defensively, finishing the loss with five digs and four blocks. Unfortunately, there were no statistics available for the match against Houghton at the time this article was published.

The GTs will not play for almost a week, returning to action on Wednesday, February 5^th, when they travel to Carlow for a road match.

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