BUFFALO, N.Y. – The D'Youville University Men's Volleyball team fell 3-1 in their afternoon game against Harvard University on Saturday afternoon.

D'Youville University 1 vs Harvard University 3 – 25-20, 17-25, 18-25, 14-25
Set One
The Saints started out strong on Saturday afternoon with a kill from Ian De Wilde (Lockport, N.Y. / Starpoint) followed by three Harvard errors to take the 4-2 lead. Harvard worked to tie the game back up and as gameplay continued, the Saints went on a three-point run following another kill from De Wilde and a service ace from Jacob Malak (Wales, Wisc. / Kettle Moraine) to go up 9-6. After allowing Harvard to get one back, the Saints scored four more in a row following another kill from De Wilde and a serving ace from Tymek Brzoza (Tychy, Poland) to bring the score to 13-7 in the Saints favor.

Harvard tried to put together a comeback, but the Saints stayed tough on offense going on another four-point run featuring an ace from De Wilde, and kills from Jacob Malak and Skyler Tutor (St. Cloud, Fl. / St. Cloud). The Saints continued to climb as Harvard worked to lessen D'Youville's lead, but an error from Harvard would give the Saints the 25-20 win in set one.

Set Two
Harvard took the lead quickly in set two, but a three-point run featuring kills from De Wilde and Haven Wankerl (Cross Plains, Wisc. / Middleton) would tie the game at nine. Harvard took the lead from there and pulled away following a six-point run to go up 20-13. Brzoza recorded one more ace for the Saints in the set, but Harvard would go on to win 25-17 in set two.

Set Three
Again, Harvard jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the third set but kills from Brzoza and Tutor along with Harvard errors would bring the Saints right back to take the 5-4 lead. Gameplay continued and the score was continuously exchanged between teams until Harvard would go up by two at 15-13 and continue to hold a two-point lead as the score climbed. After a final kill from Brzoza, Harvard would score the last three points of the set to win 25-18.

Set Four
Kills from Brzoza and Ethan Robinson (Toronto, Canada) would give the Saints the 4-3 lead in the fourth set and as gameplay continued, the Saints would hold the one-point lead until Harvard scored four in a row to jump up 11-8. The Saints got one back, but Harvard went on a seven-point run to go up 18-9. The Saints continued to try to chip away, but Harvard reached 25 first winning the fourth set 25-14 and the match 3-1.

Saints Stats
Ian De Wilde, Tymek Brzoza, and Skyler Tutor all recorded nine kills in the match for the Saints and Freshman, Kristian Smith (Zebulon, NC / Franklin Academy) recorded 26 assists in his first collegiate start as a Saint. D'Youville recorded 32 kills as a team in the match with eight blocks and 35 digs.

Up Next
The D'Youville Men's Volleyball team remains home for a Monday night non-conference matchup against Thomas More University at 7:00 PM.