POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team fell in five sets (23-25, 26-28, 25-17, 25-18, 15-10) to Vassar College at the Brewers' Kenyon Hall Friday night.

After earning their first national ranking in program history last week; the Cardinals, ranked 14th in the NVA/AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Poll dropped to 11-2 overall and 0-1 in the United Volleyball Conference. Meanwhile, Vassar, ranked fifth in the national poll, improved to 10-4 and 3-0 in league play.

Sophomore Josh Bigford set a new career-high with a game-high 27 kills while Paul Hackford led the Cardinals with 44 assists.

After not playing in a match for almost two weeks, the Cardinals played from behind for the early portion of the opening set until a 6-0 run made it 18-13 in favor of the visitors. Fisher then controlled the edge the rest of the way and then Paul Hackford set up Bigford the set-winning point.

On Paul Hackford's serve the Cardinals won four straight point to go up 6-3 in the second set. Vassar would make it a tight contest for much of the stanza until Fisher gained a 24-20 lead. The Brewers were able to fight off the four set points and even take a 25-24 advantage. However, the Cardinals responded with a big point off the hand of Bigford to keep the set going. The visiting team took three of the next four points to grab a two-sets-to-none advantage.

The Brewers led for the entirety of the third set and extended the match to the fourth set. In the fourth, the Cardinals kept it close until Vassar used a 5-1 run to gain a 19-15 edge and then finished the set on a 5-2 run to send the match to the fifth.

After the Brewers won the opening point of the final set, Paul Hackford set up his brother Martin Hackford for the kill to tie it at one-all. Down by one, David Cerqua assisted Bigford on a point to square things at five-all. Vassar would take the lead one final time on the following point and would not relinquish it the rest of the way.

Martin Hackford earned his third double-double of the season with 12 kills and 11 digs. Paul Hackford reached 40 assists for the fifth time this season. Cerqua had a team-high 12 digs. Ivan Lopez posted six total blocks for the second-straight match. 

Fisher now gets ready for another conference bout on Saturday when it visits The Sage Colleges. The match is set to start at 11 a.m.