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NEW YORK -- Fourth-seeded Nazareth began its patented post-season push Saturday as the Golden Flyers won a pair of three-set men's volleyball matches to advance to Sunday's title match of the United Volleyball Conference Tournament at New York University.

The Golden Flyers won three-set matches over fifth-seeded Vassar (25-18, 25-17, 25-21) and eighth-seeded Penn State Behrend (25-23, 25-20, 29-27) to improve their overall record to 26-8. Nazareth will meet second-seeded Stevens in Sunday's conference championship match at 4 p.m. at NYU. The winner will gain an automatic berth to the inaugural NCAA Division III Tournament at Springfield April 27-29.

Nazareth followed a similar pattern in winning its two matches Saturday. In 2010, Nazareth was the 15th seed in the 16-team NECVA Tournament and won four straight matches to become the improbable winner. In 2011, Nazareth also surged toward season's end in winning the Molten Division III Championship with home-court wins over Carthage and Springfield respectively.

This weekend, Nazareth's lineup was bolstered by the return of senior outside hitter Billy Gimello, who missed Nazareth's last 10 matches with a knee injury. Against Vassar, Gimello recorded a team-best 10 kills with just two hitting errors in 20 attempts for a .400 hitting percentage. Freshman Luke Lawatsch added seven kills and junior Alex Houghtalen contributed 10 digs.

Nazareth never trailed in winning the first set and then broke loose from a 15-15 tie in the second set to rattle off 10 of the final 12 points. Junior Rob Kraft produced a service ace for the set-clinching point. In the third set, Nazareth trailed early on before rallying to tie the score at 16-16 on a kill by EJ Wells-Spicer, which triggered a six-point scoring run that enabled the Golden Flyers to secure the lead for good at 20-16.

Against Penn State Behrend, a five-set upset winner over top-seeded NYU, Nazareth received a match-high 14 kills from Kraft, who produced a .458 hitting percentage, and 32 assists from Wells-Spicer.

Nazareth led for most of the first set, but the Lions kept the score close before back-to-back kills by Kraft out of the middle clinched the set for the Golden Flyers.  The score was tied at 15-15 in the second set when Nazareth got a kill from Houghtalen and a service ace from freshman Brody Cord to take the lead for good.

The third set was tied 18 times before Nazareth scored the last two points on a kill by Gimello and a combination block from Cord and sophomore Cole Hutter. Houghtalen finished with nine kills and Cord and Hutter each had five.

In playing Stevens (27-7) Sunday, Nazareth seeks to avenge an earlier defeat. The Ducks defeated the Golden Flyers in four sets back on March 11. Stevens is ranked fourth nationally, Nazareth seventh. The match can be followed on LiveStats and viewed by web cast.