CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Serving as host for the first United Volleyball Conference (UVC) Crossover Tournament of the season, the MIT men's volleyball team emerged with a 2-1 ledger at the conclusion of the two-day affair. The nationally-ranked No. 13 Engineers (6-2, 3-1 UVC) opened up action with a 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13 victory over No. 7 Elmira College but then fell to No. 6 Nazareth College, 25-23, 25-22, 25-13. MIT bounced back by blanking D'Youville College, 25-17, 25-12, 25-9, on Sunday afternoon.

Junior Chris Omahan (Mount Vernon, Ohio) amassed 16 kills, a .419 hitting percentage, 10 digs, and three blocks in the five-set thriller versus Elmira. Freshman Aaron Zalewski (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) posted eight kills, five blocks, and an ace as classmate Martin Krasuski (Aurora, Ill.) also added eight kills. Senior Kenny Siebert (St. Louis, Mo.) bolstered the attack with seven kills while junior Brad Gross (Centreville, Va.) recorded three blocks. Senior Paul Syta (Fairport, N.Y.) tallied 35 assists, 14 digs, four blocks, and an ace as sophomore Brendan Chang (Laytonsville, Md.) racked up 21 digs. Junior Alex Klein (San Diego, Calif.) rounded out the front row with four blocks while senior Evan Wang (Saratoga, Calif.) dished out eight assists.

In the nightcap with Nazareth, Omahan paced the Engineers with seven kills and three blocks in addition to four digs. Siebert notched six digs and five kills as junior Andrew Busse (Mount Prospect, Ill.) chipped in four kills and two blocks. Gross and Klein both had two blocks apiece while Chang generated four digs. Syta finished with 22 assists, four kills, and four digs as Wang registered seven assists and four digs.

Krasuski powered the Cardinal and Gray with eight kills and a .583 hitting effort in its sweep of D'Youville. Klein also finished with eight kills to go along with a .375 hitting performance and four blocks. Freshman Narindra Peaks (Voorhees, N.J.) connected on all four of his attack attempts and added three blocks and two aces. Siebert chipped in five kills as Chang recorded 10 digs. Syta produced 19 assists, five digs, and two aces while Wang distributed 13 assists.

Next up for MIT will be a road trip to conference foe No. 9 NYU on Wednesday, Feb. 12.