ALBANY, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team defeated the Sage Colleges Saturday at the Gators' Kahl Gym. The Cardinals, ranked 14th in the NVA/AVCA Division III Coaches Poll, won in straight-sets (25-17, 25-12, 25-18) to earn their first United Volleyball Conference victory of the season. Fisher's record is now 12-2 overall and 1-1 in league play while Sage moves to 4-12 and 0-3 in the UVC.
Josh Bigford excelled on the court for the Cardinals with a season-high .545 hitting percentage as the sophomore racked up a game-high 14 kills while only committing two attack errors. Fisher tied a season-high with 13 service aces in the match. Junior
Martin Hackford led the way for the Cardinals with tying a career-high five aces to go along with nine kills.
Fisher had to play from behind as the match got underway but quickly turned it in its favor with an 11-3 run that made it 18-13 Cardinals.
Martin Hackford,
Matt Beiter and
Matt Broderick all tallied aces during the run. Four points won in a row put the visitors just one away from winning the set with Bigford netting back-to-back kills and then an ace to lead the surge.
Paul Hackford set up Beiter for the set-winning point.
The Cardinals won the second set wire-to-wire with taking an early 3-0 advantage and then never looking back. A four-point run put Fisher on top 18-9 as Beiter won the opening point of the run and then later served up an ace. The Cardinals finished off the frame with four straight points with
Paul Hackford assisting Bigford on the final point.
After falling into 5-1 hole in the third set, Fisher responded well and tied it up at seven-all.
Martin Hackford slammed home a kill to give the Cardinals a 10-9 edge and that would be the final lead change of the day as Fisher grew its lead to as high as nine at 23-14. The final point was a Hackford special as Paul passed it Martin to put the game on ice.
25 points by the Gators is the second lowest output the Cardinals have allowed this season. Sage also only had 17 digs in the match, which is the lowest amount Fisher has allowed this year. Meanwhile, Beiter had a game-high seven digs along with six kills and three aces for the Cardinals.
Paul Hackford had another solid setting day with a game-high 37 assists.
Up next for Fisher is its spring break trip that will feature three teams ranked in the most recent national poll including No. 1 and No. 3. The Cardinals start the road trip at the third ranked team in the nation-New York University on Saturday, February 29 for a 1 p.m. tilt.
