ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team dropped its first in-conference matchup of the season at UVC and East Avenue rival, Nazareth College, in four sets (23-25, 10-25, 25-23, 21-25) inside Kidera Gymnasium. The Cardinals slipped to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the UVC with the loss, while the Golden Flyers improved to 2-0 on the year and 1-0 in conference play.
 
Junior outside hitter, Josh Bigford, tallied a team-high six kills to accompany five digs on the evening, while middle blocker Ivan Lopez tallied a team-high .200 hitting percentage on three kills, three assisted blocks, and a service ace. Eric Bentivegna and Matt Beiter each added four kills of their own while Dylan Urbanski and Paul Hackford split the dealing with ten and seven assists, respectively. Libero David Cerqua led the Cardinals in digs with 13, while setter, Hackford, added seven of his own.
 
The Golden Flyers proved to be a worthy opponent for the eighth-ranked Cardinals, as the teams exchanged opening blows. Following a Hackford service ace, Fisher jumped out to their largest lead of the first set, 20-17. Nazareth battled back to win the set by two, as the home squad went on an eight to three scoring run, which included two Golden Flyer blocks and three critical errors by the Cardinals.
 
Following a second set that left Fisher down two to none, head coach Stephen England executed lineup changes that breathed new life into its offense. A Nazareth service error swung momentum into the direction of the Cardinals, as Beiter smashed a set from Dylan Urbanski and a triple block from Beiter, Bentivegna and Avery Terroso forced Nazareth into a timeout, as Fisher took a 10-7 lead in the third set.
 
The two clubs exchanged points for the rest of the set, until a massive kill from Lopez knotted the score at 21 apiece. Two errors and a Lopez service ace put the Cardinals up three points, and a Golden Flyer error gave the Cardinals its only set victory of the evening.
 
Fisher opened up the fourth set with Urbanski and Bentivegna teaming up for a block at the net, followed by a Lopez kill to tie up the set at four. Nazareth and Fisher exchanged errors on both sides of the ball, until the Cardinals found themselves in a 19-13 hole.
 
Beiter broke the skid with a kill from Urbanski and five Nazareth errors brought the Cardinals to within five points. Back-to-back kills from Bigford narrowed the margin, but Fisher could not complete the comeback, as Nazareth took the fourth and final set, 25-21.
 
Fisher gets back to work this Saturday, March 13 as they welcome Elmira to Manning & Napier Varsity Gym for a doubleheader at 2 P.M. and 4 P.M. – both teams look for their first conference win in the first of the twofer.