ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College men's volleyball team had played Sage seven times since the Gators launched their program in 2010.
Bard had won every single match.
On Saturday, the streak ended.
Sage topped Bard in the championship match of the Bard Raptors Tournament on Saturday, 3-1. It's the first time Sage has beaten Bard, and the first time Bard has not won its own tournament since 2009.
The Raptors (7-9 overall) didn't exactly gift-wrap the victory for the Gators (11-4). Every set was a nail-biter and Sage definitely earned a victory that gave them a school-record sixth straight win.
Set scores for Sage were 25-22, 24-26, 28-26 and 25-23.
Bard had a 12-8 lead in the first set, but Sage rallied, tied it at 16-16, and slowly pulled away to take the lead, 25-22.
The second set could have been a back-breaker for Sage. The Gators were up 19-12 and 24-17, but Bard stormed back behind the serving of
Eliah Gardner and the hitting of
Nick Chan. The Raptors scored the last nine points of the set to win it, 26-24. It seemed to change the momentum in the match.
But Sage had a rally of its own in store. Bard held a small lead through most of the third set, and it seemed all but over at 23-18. But the Gators pulled it together, tied it at 24-24, and eventually won the set, 28-26.
The fourth set was more like the first set, with Sage holding a small lead throughout and pulling out the victory.
The winners were led by junior Spencer Hilland (Slingerlands, NY), who had 18 kills and 12 digs, and Kyle Ray, who had 38 assists and eight digs. Sophomore Dylan Krowicki (Little Falls, NY) had 13 kills and 14 digs.
Bard got 23 kills (.345) and six digs from
Nick Chan, eight kills (.533) and five blocks from
Ryan Fallon, and 33 assists and 13 digs from
Henry Kasiske.
Billy Williams had a career-high 22 digs.
Next up for Bard is a matchup with 10th-ranked Vassar at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
BARD RAPTORS TOURNAMENT 2012
Champion: Sage
Runner-up: Bard
Third place: Lasell
Fourth place: NYU-Poly
Fifth place: SUNYIT
Sixth place: Mount Ida
All-Tournament Team
Spencer Hastings, Mount Ida
Justus Stahrr, SUNYIT
Joe Gabor, NYU-Poly
Riski Sarkar, NYU-Poly
Matt Dugan, Lasell
Dan Raffol, Lasell
Nick Chan, Bard
Billy Williams, Bard
Dylan Krowicki, Sage
Scott Fitzgerald, Sage
Most Outstanding Player: Kyle Ray, Sage