ELMIRA, N.Y. – The Elmira Men's Volleyball team recognized its Class of 2023 on Friday evening, paying homage to Oscar Munoz Trinidad '23, Neiram Galan-Canales '23, Alex Nuez '23, Ryan Mattes '23, and Haenhyanonhna Powless '23. The Soaring Eagles would be handed a 3-1 loss at the hands of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as Alberto Mauricio '25 finished the match with 26 kills, while Munoz Trinidad finished with 14. 

JUST THE BASICS:
SCORE: Elmira 1, MIT 3
LOCATION: Elmira, New York | Speidel Gymnasium
TEAM RECORDS: Elmira (12-7, 2-4 UVC), MIT (12-12, 1-4 UVC)

HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Soaring Eagles would battle through the opening two sets, but would come up short in each after falling by a score of 25-18 in both frames, respectively. In the first, the Soaring Eagles would find themselves down just a pair before a 6-2 Engineer run increased the visitors lead to 20-13. After a 3-0 run from the Soaring Eagles which featured kills from Mauricio (2) and Max Cohen '25, the Soaring Eagles would trim the deficit to four before MIT scored five of the last seven points. 

From there, the Engineers would take the second set by the same score, posting a .269 hitting percentage compared to .114 for the Purple & Gold. With the set tied 10-10, the Engineers used a 7-2 run to increase its lead to five, before eventually scoring three of the last four points to take a 2-0 lead in the match. 

Despite an increase in hitting percentage for the Engineers in the third, Emira would post its best set of the evening, tallying a .424 mark after notching 16 kills and just two attacking errors, paced by Mauricio with seven. With the set tied at 15-15, Elmira used a 5-1 run which featured three errors from the visiting squad, putting EC within five points of a set victory. From there, Elmira would score three of its final five points on kills from Mauricio and Munoz Trinidad, taking the set 25-23 to force the fourth. 

The fourth set proved to be an energetic one, with the Soaring Eagles trailing just 17-16 in the later stages. After each team traded pairs of points, the Engineers would eventually score the last six, ultimately taking the set 25-18, and the match, 3-1.

UP NEXT:
The Soaring Eagles will take a week break before traveling to the campus of Juniata College for matches against Juniata and Drew University on Saturday, April 8.