BOX SCORE
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Buffalo State outlasted CUNY Athletic Conference champion New Jersey City for a 3-2 win in the play-in round of the 2026 NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship Thursday evening at Blake Arena. Set scores were 25-21, 22-25, 21-25, 32-30, 15-13.
The Bengals (29-4) advance to face host Springfield Friday, while the Gothic Knights see their season come to a close at 20-10.
Up 2-1, New Jersey City led 22-20 in the fourth set before three straight Buffalo State points put the Bengals in front 23-22. From there, the lead changed hands four times before BSU scored the final three points to force a deciding set.
NJCU led 8-5 at the crossover in the fifth, but the Bengals came out with three straight points to tie the set 8-8. The Gothic Knights led 10-8 before the Bengals scored three in a row to go up 11-10. Buffalo State led 14-12 before eventually closing out the match after NJCU pulled within one on a
Marcus Pardasie kill.
Pardasie paced the Gothic Knights with 25 kills on .250 hitting.
Amaru Perales totaled 14 kills, hitting .333, while
Victor De Souza and
Matt Peralta each added nine.
Alex Casais handed out 59 assists for NJCU, which got 22 defensive digs from
Anthony Matute and 14 from Pardasie. Perales had a team-high four blocks for NJCU, which hit .213 for the match.
Buffalo State, which hit .229 on the night, was led by Gavin Wilczewski's 22 kills. Drew Bowman had 48 assists for the Bengals, with Jackson Stang pacing the victors in digs with 10.
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