Rochester, NY - The D'Youville men's volleyball team opened up their weekend at the Golden Flyer Invitational - hosted by Nazareth College - with 3-0 losses to the Nazareth Golden Flyer and the Johnson & Wales Wildcats.

D'Youville began the day against the host Golden Flyers and played extremely competitively. The Spartans had the early advantage over Nazareth at 11-8 before the set would come to a tie at 13-13. Several points later, Naz would go ahead 20-18 on their way to a 25-20 first set victory. 

In the second, the score was tied 4-4 early with Naz taking the lead at 9-5. The Golden Flyer would go ahead by three at 14-11 before D'Youville would go ahead 20-18. However, Nazareth would overtake the Spartans late to with the second 25-21.

The third set saw another back-and-forth between the two teams to the very end. Down by four the Spartans would score three consecutive points to trail 13-14. Naz would pull ahead by five before D'Youville would again turn it on to tie the third at 23-23. Unfortunately for the Spartans, the final two points of the match would come from the Golden Flyers as they took the third 25-23 and the match 3-0.

Dan Busha (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) led the team with six kills, followed by Anthony Dean (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) with four. Both Karl Jauch (Lockport, NY/Starpoint) and Mitch Mason (Eden, NY/Eden) led the team with three digs while Jauch tallied a team-high 11 assists. Ali Khadra (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville East) registered three kills and three blocks while Joshua Hoy (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) added four blocks. Danny Steck (Lancaster, NY/St. Francis) recorded five kills while Troy Stancampiano (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville East) had two digs.

The Spartans went ahead early in their second match of the day, leading 6-5 against Johnson & Wales. Over the next several points, the Wildcats went up 14-8 and then led to the end, winning the first 25-18. D'Youville would lead in the second 12-6 after six unanswered points. Johnson & Wales would then turn it on to lead 13-12 and then take the second 25-17. 

Again in the third, the Spartans led early 10-7 before the Wildcats would come back to tie the third at 10. D'Youville would trail 15-16 and then by two at 18-20 as Johnson & Wales went on to win the third set 25-21 and the match 3-0.

Busha again led the team with nine kills as Dean added six. Mason and Jauch again tied for the team lead with four digs each and Jauch recorded a team-high 18 assists. Steck tallied four blocks in the match with one kills.

D'Youville will resume the Golden Flyer Invite on Saturday as they play UC Santa Cruz at 11:00am and Lasell at 1:00pm.