NEWARK, N.J. – A historic season came to a close on Friday night as the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's volleyball team was defeated in the opening round of the NCAA Championship by the No. 7 Wentworth Institute of Technology Leopards inside the Golden Dome Arena at Rutgers-Newark.  With the loss, Fisher, which is ranked 10th in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, concluded the year at 24-8 while the Leopards improved to 29-4 and advanced to the second round where they'll take on the No. 5 Scarlett Knights with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

After falling behind 10-8 in the opening set, Fisher found its footing and surged ahead after reeling off five unanswered points that included kills from Matt Beiter, Paul Hackford and Jake Baker to open up a 13-10 edge.

As the set wore on, the lead would change hands three times until the Cardinals went on a 5-0 burst to hold a 20-16 lead.  Wentworth battled all the way back to tie the frame at 23-23 before a kill from Beiter gave Fisher set-point.  From there, the Cardinals had the Leopards on the ropes three more times, but Wentworth scored four of the set's final five points to steal a 30-28 win.

The Leopards carried their momentum over into the second set en route to a 25-22 win and would get out to an early lead in the third frame following a 6-5 start.

Trailing by a point early on, Fisher pushed ahead with two straight kills by Josh Bigford.  As the set continued, both teams traded points until the Cardinals scored three straight points as part of a larger 4-1 run to claim a 17-15 advantage. 

Clinging to a two-point edge, the momentum shifted again with Wentworth countering with four of the set's next five points to jump on top, 21-20, before stringing together three more unanswered scores to create some breathing room, 24-21.

Facing elimination, the Cardinals continued to grind with back-to-back errors from Wentworth making it a 24-23 set, but the comeback bid fell short with the Leopards hammering home a kill to secure the win and a spot in Saturday's Elite Eight.

Baker led the way for Fisher at the net with 13 kills to go along with 12 digs and four blocks.  Bigford tallied 11 kills, eight digs and two blocks while Hackford finished with nine kills and nine digs over three sets.  Evan Ingerick was credited with 29 assists while David Cerqua closed out his career with nine digs in the game and nearly 1,300 for his career.

The Cardinals put together the most successful season in the program's five-year history after securing the second overall seed in the United Volleyball Conference Championship for the first time. Fisher parlayed that into its first-ever conference championship and finished the year with a program-best 24 wins.