PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher men's volleyball team extended its winning streak to 11 on Wednesday night inside Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium as it defeated Nazareth College for the first time in the program's two-year history. The Cardinals took down the Golden Flyers in straight sets 25-17, 25-17, 30-28 to improve to 12-3 overall and 1-0 in the United Volleyball Conference, while Nazareth falls to 8-6 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Throughout its 11 match winning streak, Fisher has now won seven of the matches in straight sets, while only dropping a total of five sets since the winning streak began on January 26th.

The Fisher offense did not waste any time getting started in the first set as the Cardinals put away 13 kills in the first set, along with a .300 hitting percentage.

The Cardinals were able to gain some momentum early on in the first set, jumping out to a quick 10-4 advantage. As the first set wore on, Fisher continued to put the pressure on Nazareth eventually pushing its lead to 23-14 off of a monster kill from Ivan Lopez.

From there, the Golden Flyers were only able to cut the Cardinal lead to seven points, until another kill out of the middle this time from Mike Strumpfler capped off the first set victory.

Much like the second set, the Cardinals strung together some momentum as the reigning Empire 8 and UVC Rookie of the Week, Andres Ramirez powered the Cardinals onto a 6-0 scoring run from the service line. After an early 7-1 lead, Fisher continued its steady play increasing its wide margin to 20-11 with the help of three-straight kills from Lopez, Ramirez, and Paul Hackford.

Following a Nazareth timeout, both teams traded two-point runs back-and forth until eventually another kill from Strumpfler finished off the second set victory.

With Fisher leading two sets to none, both sides once again traded points back-and-forth to start off the third set, leading to a 9-9 deadlock on the scoreboard.

The back-and-forth continued as the third set progressed, as both battled to gain the momentum as the score remained knotted a 20-20. After fighting off a Nazareth set-point, Fisher earned its first-match point as a kill from Josh Bigford put the Cardinals ahead 25-24.

The exciting action continued as both sides continued to trade kills, until Fisher gained its second match-point off of a Ramirez kill off of the Golden Flyer block.

With the Cardinals leading 29-28 and the home crowd behind them, Strumpfler stepped to the service line and rocketed his first service ace of the season to give Fisher the straight set victory.

As a team, Fisher finished the match with an average hitting percentage of .348 with Bigford leading the way with 13 kills and six digs. Matt Broderick finished with nine kills, while Strumpfler added another eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage off of 12 attempts. Paul Hackford handled the setting duties and posted a game-high 38 assists and four digs. 

Defensively for the Cardinals, David Cerqua notched a game-high 10 digs and Lopez continues to lead the UVC in total blocks, adding three in the victory.

Fisher returns to action on Saturday at 12 p.m. as it welcomes New York University to Bobby Wanzer Court for its second United Volleyball Conference matchup of the season.