ELIZABETHTOWN, N.J. — Playing in their third straight match to go the distance, the Pratt Institute men's volleyball came up short in a 3-2 (20-25, 25-17, 24-26, 25-19, 15-7) United East Conference defeat to Saint Elizabeth University on Tuesday evening.
Max Wang led all hitters with 12 kills and also brought up a match-high 17 digs for his fourth double-double of the season. Joji Kawamura added 10 kills with 11 digs in a double-double effort. Wallace Hallot chipped in seven kills while Brooks Reid added 28 assists with six digs.
Pratt (4-14, 0-6) used a 7-1 spurt to pull away in the opening set after both teams were tied at 13-all. Saint Elizabeth (9-16, 3-1) won the opening five points of the second stanza and never trailed to level the match at 1-all.
The black-and-gold took a back-and-forth set three with neither team ahead by more than two and 17 ties and seven lead changes. Pratt fought off a pair of Eagles set points at 24-22 and 24-23 amidst a 4-0 run to close out the set on a Wang kill – Wang accumulating five kills in the set and hitting .417.
A 7-1 spurt for the hosts in set four built an 18-11 separation they would hold in forcing a fifth set. Saint Elizabeth got out of the gates quickly in the fifth racing out to an 8-1 lead and didn't let Pratt pull any closer than down five.
Kennedy Ibezim led St. Elizabeth with 10 kills and four blocks. Eusebio Veras and Kyzier Kelly added nine kills apiece.
Pratt takes a break from United East play facing Kings County foes Medgar Evers College in their penultimate match of the season on Thursday, March 28 at 7 p.m.
