ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The No. 12 St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team got some much-needed revenge on Wednesday night as the Cardinals took a non-conference four-set match from No. 15 Nazareth College inside Kidera Gymnasium (25-27, 25-21, 25-22, 25-20). The Cardinals recover the first half of their schedule as they improve to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the UVC, while the Golden Flyers face their first setback of the season, dropping to 2-1 overall and remaining unblemished in the conference with a 2-0 record.

The East Avenue squads exchanged points for the duration of the first set, with the largest lead favoring Nazareth, 10-5. Five straight points including kills from Matt Beiter and Eric Bentivegna allowed the Cardinals to battle back to even the score at ten. The teams went blow for blow to the finish, with the Golden Flyers taking the win-by-two edge.

The second set was just as close as the first, until Fisher took the advantage midway through the set. Dylan Urbanski set up middle blocker Ivan Lopez for a kill, then Lopez and Beiter teamed up to block an attack by the current UVC Rookie of the Week, putting the Cardinals up 18-16. Fisher retained their two-point lead for the remainder of the set until Josh Bigford sent an attack in the Nazareth direction that was too hard to handle, as the Cardinals went up 24-21. On set point, Lopez sniffed out the Golden Flyer attack, and recorded a solo block at the net, tying the sets at one apiece.

Fisher went up big early in the third set, as the Cardinals scored the eight of the first 11 points, three of which were on blocks shared by Bentivegna, Bigford, Lopez, and Urbanski. The Golden Flyers then went on to knot the set up at 18 points apiece, forcing the Cardinals into a timeout.

The Cardinals' defense secured them three points, then a Beiter kill served up by Urbanski put the visitors up two points, encouraging Nazareth to talk things over themselves. Bentivegna and Avery Terroso sealed the set for Fisher, as their points helped secure a three-point set victory.

Offensive and defensive errors from both squads kept the Cardinals alive early in the fourth set, as Fisher went up 15-12 on just three logged kills. Coming out of a Nazareth timeout, the Cardinals sent home three kills from Bigford and Lopez to increase their lead to three points. Just four points away from victory, Beiter and Bentivegna teamed up for a block followed up by a Bentivegna and Urbanski block to take its largest lead of the set at 23-19. The Fisher defense forced the match's final two points and the Cardinals concluded their vengeance.

Bigford led the offense for the Cardinals, tallying 11 kills on the night that he paired with 12 digs and four blocks. Beiter added eight kills, seven digs, and five blocks, while Bentivegna notched five kills and six blocks, and Lopez notched a game-high eight blocks. Libero David Cerqua tied Bigford's dig total on the day with 12 and Urbanski dished out a team-high 26 assists.

The Cardinals face another nationally-ranked UVC foe this Saturday, March 20 when they travel to Elmira for a neutral site doubleheader beginning at 3 P.M. with No. 2 SUNY New Paltz.