New York, NY- The Sage Colleges' men's volleyball team travelled to New York City and took on both Pratt Institute and Lehman College in a pair of non-conference contests on Saturday afternoon. The Gators opened the day with a 3-0 win over Pratt, (25-7, 25-10, 25-11). In the second match of the day cross town, Sage bested Lehman College, 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-22). With the wins, Sage is now 10-8 on the season.
Against Pratt, the team combined for a .518 attack percentage with just one reception error in 21 attempts, good enough for a .955 reception percentage effort. Leading the way for Sage was junior outside hitter Bailey Cecchi (Agawam, MA/Agawam) with nine kills, 10 points and a .727 hitting performance. Rookie middle hitter Tyler Schnaible ( Ballston Lake, NY/Shenendehowa) added eight kills with 10 points and racked up a .583 hitting percentage in the action. Junior setter Casey Fitzpatrick (Haverhill, MA/Haverhill) added 17 setting assists with three digs and an ace.
Junior libero Melvin Tejada (Springfield, MA/Springfield Central) added seven digs with four kills and an ace in the contest. All told, the Gators combined for a .945 serving percentage with six aces, while holding Pratt to a -.083 attack percentage.
Hours later, Sage faced Lehman College (6-8) and rebounded to take the win after falling 25-23 in the first set. Sage won the next three sets.
Junior Ryan Guyton (Lockport, NY/Lockport) had a monster performance adding a team-best 25.5 points with 21 kills and a .342 attack percentage to go with his nine digs.
Schnaible had 13.5 points in the contest with 12 kills, while Cecchi had 14 points on 11 kills and three aces. Fitzpatrick connected for 12 digs with 48 setting assists.
Guyton boasts 927.5 career points while adding 715 career kills. He ranks No. 4 all-time in kills, while ranking third all-time in points and is poised to become just the third player to achieve 1,000 career points. Cecchi stands fourth all-time with his 853 career points, while ranking third with his 717 kills, just two ahead of Guyton.
Sage is back in action on March 18 hosting Hunter College and Penn State-Behrend in a non-conference tri-match with matches at noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. in Kahl Gym.
