ELMIRA, NY – Junior Casey Fitzpatrick (Haverhill, MA/Haverhill) joined the 1,000 assists club Saturday afternoon after Sage's 1-1 afternoon at the Elmira College Invitational. Sage took a 3-2 (25-16, 25-27, 16-25, 25-18, 15-12) thriller from D'Youville while dropping a 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-16) decision to Elmira.
Fitzpatrick becomes the second player in Sage history to reach the 1000 assist mark. The first Gator to do so was Kyle Ray (2010-13).
Sage (6-5) came out on fire against D'Youville (3-2) in the first set scoring six unanswered points. After swapping points, Sage went up 17-9 on a kill by Chris MacArthur (Ancram, NY/Taconic Hills). The Gators extended their lead to 22-13 on a kill by Zachary Karl (West Monroe, NY/Central Square). After a service error cut Sage's lead to 22-14, the Gators were led by MacArthur with two kills to take the first set 25-16.
After the first set started 10-10, Sage went on a 5-0 run on the backs ofMacArthur, Bailey Cecchi (Agawam, MA/Agawam), Jared Almy (Howes Cave, NY/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and Ryan Guyton (Lockport, NY/Lockport) to go up 15-10. D'Youville responded with a 9-4 run to tie the set 19-19. Both sides continued to go back-and-forth unit Sage took a 24-22 led on kills by Fitzpatrick and Tyler Schnaible (Ballston Lake, NY/Shenendehowa). The Spartens came back and tied the set 24-24 on kills from Zach Bochacki and Pat Stroh. Sage responded with a kill from Cecchi, but D'Youville scored three straight points to take the set 27-25.
With the match tied 1-1, D'Youville jumped out with an 18-6 lead in the third set. The Spartans extended their lead to 21-7 until Sage went on a 4-0 led by Guyton and Cecchi to cut the lead to 22-12. D'Youville responded with two points to go up 24-12. Sage went on small 4-0 to cut the lead to eight, but a Bochacki kill sealed the second set for the Spartans 25-16.
In the fourth set, Sage started with a 7-2 lead. D'Youville cut the lead down 10-8 on a 6-3 run led by Stroh, Bochacki and Collin McMahon. The two teams exchanged points until the Gators went on an 11-5 run led byGuyton, Cecchi, Shane Wenz (Valatie, NY/Ichabod Crane), Jarod Martel (Albany, NY/Colonie Central) and Austin Laverty (Schenectady, NY/Mohonasen) to go up 21-13. Sage went on to score its last four points on a service error and kills by Guyton, Karl and Cecchi to take the set 25-18.
With the match on the line, Sage came out with a 6-4 lead on a MacArthur ace. Both sides kept going back-and-forth until the Gators took a 10-7 lead on a Guyton kill. Sage then followed with a 3-1 run to jump to a 13-8 lead. The Spartans scored on a Ryan Kilijanski and an attack error to cut the lead to 13-10. Fitzpatrick broke the run to put Sage up 14-10. D'Youville came back 14-12 until Wenz scored the final kill to take the set and match 15-12.
Cecchi scored a team-high 21.0 points on 20 kills and two blocks. Guyton came up with 13.5 points (12 kills, one ace) while Wenz and MacArthur were also in double-digit scoring with 13 (10 kills, three blocks, one ace) and 12 points (11 kills, one ace) respectively. Fitzpatrick finished with his second double-double of the year with 52 assists and 13 digs.
For D'Youville, Stroh led with a match-high 26.5 points on 24 kills, two aces and one block. Logan Krass added 11.5 points on 11 kills and one block. McMahon led the way in assists with 45 while Bochacki had a match-high four blocks.
Fitzpatrick's 52 assists are 6th in five-set single-match assists and 8th in any single-match at Sage. Aslo, Cecchi's 20 kills rank 10th in five-set single-match kills at Sage.
In the match with Elmira (4-10), set one started in a 7-7 tie before the Soaring Eagles went on a 4-0 run to go up 11-7. Both sides swapped points until Elmira went up 19-11 on a Ryan McDonough ace. With the Soaring Eagles up 22-13, Sage scored two quick points on an Elmira service error and a Cecchi ace to cut the lead down to seven. However, Elmira responded with a 3-1 run to take the first set 25-16.
With Elmira up 1-0 in the match, the second set started out in a 5-5 tie before McDonough led the Soaring Eagles with two kills to go up 13-8. The Gators responded with an 11-6 run led by Cecchi and Schnaible with a kill and block each to tie the set 19-19. Sage took its second lead of the set with a big kill from Guyton to go up 20-21. Elmira responded with a 4-0 run to go back up 24-21. The Gators cut the lead back down to two, but an attack error sealed the final point for Elmira in the 25-22 set.
In the third and final set, the Soaring Eagles jumped out to a small 13-11 lead on a block by Matt Straney and Jeremy Best. Guyton cut the lead to 13-12 before Elmira went on a 4-0 run (17-12 score). Both sides traded points until a Cecchi kill cut down the lead to 20-16. The Soaring Eagles were led by Best, McDonough, Matthew Buffum and Dan Symer to take the last set 25-16.
Guyton led Sage with nine kills while Fitzpatrick came up with 22 assists. On the defensive end, Wenz came up with six digs while Schnaible recorded three solo blocks.
On the other side of the net, McDonough recorded a match-high 19.0 points on 13 kills, five service aces and two blocks. Symer was also in double-digit scoring with 11.5 points on six kills, four aces and two blocks. Best had a match-high 28 assists Makecki came up with a team-high five digs with Straney coming up with an impressive six blocks.
Sage comes back to Kahl Gymnasium Wed., Feb. 15 against Southern Vermont at 7 p.m.
