ROCHESTER, NY – In a Friday night matchup between two perennial Rochester based teams, the No. 11 St. John Fisher University (20-6, 3-3 UVC) came back to reverse sweep the No. 13 Nazareth College Golden Flyers (20-6, 1-5 UVC). The win extends the Cardinals win streak to six over the Golden Flyers, with both wins this season coming in reverse sweep fashion.
 
The match started with a kill from player of the week to watch Matt Beiter on an assist from Evan Ingerick. The Cardinals would demonstrate their ability to move the ball around the offense early on, using kills from Gabe La Robardiere, Josh Bigford, and Griffin Stella to open a 13-11 advantage. The Golden Flyers would chip away, eventually tying the set at 22-22. From there, Bigford put down his sixth kill of the set, but it would not be enough to stop the momentum from shifting, as Nazareth won the deuces set 26-24.
 
With the early advantage, the Golden Flyers looked to pick up where they left off in the first, quickly opening a 7-3 lead. The Cardinals would tie the set 11-11 before a string of sideouts kept the score knotted at 19-19. Two aces from Gavin Newman helped Fisher take four of the next five points to go up 23-21. After the Golden Flyers came back to tie the set at 25-25, they would outlast Fisher to take the second set 32-30 and take a commanding 2-0 lead.
 
Head Coach Matt Cohen appreciated the volleyball of the first two sets in a node to the high percentage of side outs. Recognizing the importance of staying consistent even after starting down 2-0, Cohen added "we focused on playing our game and wearing down the opponent."
 
Into the third, Fisher used an 8-0 run from Gavin Newman to set the tone for a set in which Fisher took a 17-9 lead. The Cardinals would go on to take their first set of the night by a 25-18 margin, using 11 kills and just two errors across 22 attempts to hit 0.409%, arguably their best offensive set of the night.
 
Regarding the bounce back in the third set, head coach Matt Cohen shared: "We come out in the third set using an 8-0 run from Gavin [Newman] which he has done for throughout the year. We flipped the middles to change matchups and switched to Gavin because of the luxury of our deep roster."
 
After Nazareth opened a 14-10 lead in the fourth, Fisher would rattle off four straight, using a kill from Stella and three errors for the Golden Flyers to tie the set. Later in the set, with Fisher down 19-18, the Cardinals would rattle off seven of the next nine points, using two more kills from Baker and additional kills from Cohen and Stella.
 
The fifth set started evenly matched, with the Cardinals down 8-6 as the teams switched sides. Using two kills from Bigford and a supporting kill from Baker, the Cardinals tied the set at 12-12. After two Golden Flyer errors gave Fisher set point, Baker put down another kill, his sixth of the set.
 
Bigford finished with a team high 19 kills while hitting 0.459%, adding four total blocks and four digs in the win. Meanwhile, Baker recovered to add 14 kills across 34 attempts, en route to hitting 0.265%. Tyler Cohen added eight kills, four blocks, and 10 digs, while Newman helped with 27 assists and a kill to coincide with four service aces and eight digs.
 
As a team, the Cardinals tallied 61 kills to just 20 errors across 128 attempts, good for a 0.320% mark. Fisher also added five aces and 15 blocks to back the win.
 
After the win, Bigford added "we had a couple of opportunities in the first two sets so we were able to stay focused. Winning six straight against our rival makes it that much more meaningful of a streak."
 
The Cardinals will round out their regular season next weekend, when they travel to Albany to face Northern Vermont University-Johnson and Russell Sage at Russell Sage College.
 
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