PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University men's volleyball team opened conference play against Sarah Lawrence with a 3-1 win at home on Wednesday evening. The Valiants snapped a five-game losing streak, moving to 2-8 (1-0 Skyline). Sarah Larence sits at 7-6 (1-1 Skyline).

The Valiants were led by Trevor Kolar (South Huntington, N.Y./Walt Whitman), who accumulated 24.5 points with a team-leading 19 kills, five digs, four blocks, and three aces while seeing the court in all four sets.
Pedro Machado (Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil/Colegio Oficina) continued to find his teammates throughout the match, tallying 35 assists while adding 1.5 blocks, an ace, and 7 kills. Matt Diamond (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) received nine digs through the match, with a high of three in set one and four.

Joe Gandarillas (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem HS East) made his impact around the court with 10 kills, two aces, one block, eight digs, and seeing action in all four sets. Camillo Maiocco (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining) sent down 11 kills and received seven digs with one block assist.
Set one began steadily with both teams trading off narrow leads before SLC took the edge 10-7. Taking advantage of a service error to put the set back within one, kills from Kolar and Maiocco put the home team back on top 14-13. Both teams had even rallies before meeting at 21, where two kills from Kolar, one from Adrian Bonilla (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Baldwin School of Puerto Rico), and Maiocco put the set within one before a block from Luca Peterson (Boston, Mass./Newton North) and Machado sealed set one.

The Valiants jumped ahead 9-5 with three kills from Kolar and two from Maiocco. After the Gryphons rallied back with five straight points to take the lead, the Valiants increased the momentum to tie at 10. Even at 14, the home team went on to grab the next seven of eight points, extending the lead to 50-15. Gandarillas, Machado, Bonilla, Maiocco, and Kolar sent near consecutive kills to take set two 25-19.

After a similar beginning to set three, the visiting team slowly stretched out the lead before reaching 19-14. After extending out 23-19, the Valiants sent out four consecutive to even out the board before ultimately dropping set three.
The Valiants controlled set four, pushing out to a 17-9 lead sealed with a kill from Kolar. A kill from Evan Rapp (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore), followed by Kolar shutting down a block, put the lead out to 10 with four points away from the match victory. Despite late ignition from SLC, the Valiants finished the win with a kill by Bonilla from Machado.

Up Next – The Valiants head on a three-game away stretch beginning with Mount Saint Vincent on Saturday, Feb 28, at noon.