THE BASICS:
 
- Score:
No. 7 St. John Fisher - 3, MIT - 0 (29-27, 25-20, 25-23)
 
- Records: MIT (9-9, 0-4 UVC), St. John Fisher (16-5, 1-2 UVC)
 
- Location: Cambridge, Mass. (Rockwell Cage)
 
- The Lead: The MIT men's volleyball team suffered a tough 3-0 defeat to seventh-ranked St. John Fisher on Saturday afternoon in Rockwell Cage.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
- Set 1: With the score 10-8 in favor of the visitors, the seventh-ranked team used a 5-2 run to go up five. Senior Troy Oliveira (San Diego, Calif.) ended the run with a kill and helped kick-start a 5-3 MIT run to get the host to within one. The Cardinals built a 21-17 lead but a kill from senior Nick Gustafson (San Diego, Calif.) kicked off an Engineer run that ended with a kill from sophomore Grant Oh (Irvine, Calif.) to tie the match at 21. SJF got to set point but kills from Oliveira and Gustafson flipped the script and gave MIT set point. The teams went back and forth holding off set point before the Cardinals converted and took the set 29-27.
 
- Set 2: The visitors led wire-to-wire in set two as they jumped out to a 15-9 advantage. Gustafson cut the lead down to five with a kill and first-year Michael Rini (Huntington Beach, Calif.) made it a four-point set at 15-11. The visitors held MIT at bay and took the second set 25-20.
 
- Set 3: Oliveira gave MIT a 4-1 lead, but the Cardinals slowly got back into the match, using a 6-0 run to go up 7-5. Gustafson got the Engineers back to within one, but the Cardinals would not allow the Engineers to get even. First-year Kevin Windisch (Placentia, Calif.) and Gustafson finally got MIT back even with back-to-back kills to tie the set at 22, but the Cardinals held on for the 25-23 win.  
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 
- Oliveira led MIT with 16 kills while Gustafson added 11. Gustafson also led the team with 11 digs.
 
- Sophomore Riley Oh (Irvine, Calif.) posted a team-best 26 assists while senior Albert Luo (Dallas, Texas) put up 16.
 
- Windisch finished 10 digs, two aces, and four kills.  
 
- Zach Ciraolo led the Cardinals with 11 kills and Gavin Newman put up 26 assists.
 
UP NEXT:
 
- The Engineers return to the court for a Thursday non-conference matchup as MIT welcomes North Park to Rockwell Cage for a 7 p.m. contest on March 16.   
 
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