BENNINGTON, Vt.- Down 2-0 at home, Saturday afternoon, the Southern Vermont College Men's Volleyball team rallied back for three straight wins and won 3-2 against New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opponent Daniel Webster College.
Reigning NECC player of the week Anthony Barahona led the way for SVC with 18 kills and a .295 hitting percentage. Freshmen Keven Walley and Gabriel Franco also joined in the offensive attack with 10 and nine kills respectively. Anthony Ayala had 27 assists for Southern Vermont and Herson Canta added 18 assists of his own. Senior libero Nick Haggerty picked up 23 digs in the victory.
Daniel Webster brought a high intense offense as the Eagles connected on 51 kills. Joel Hendrix led the way with 18 kills as Joe Walz added 16. Also, in double figure kills was Chris Shannon with 13. The three all had a double-double with digs and kills. Hendrix had 16 digs, Walz added 15 and Shannon picked 13. Eric Smith assisted on 23 of the DWC kills and teammate Kyle Clement had 20 assists.
In the first set Daniel Webster took a 11-6 lead before a SVC timeout. Tino Escovedo stepped up to the service line and brought the Mountaineers back into the game to make the score 13-11. The two sides went back and forth from there but SVC could never take a lead in the first set, allowing the Eagles to win 25-23. In the opening set SVC committed seven of its thirteen total service errors.
The second set was even for the first half of the match with the score tied at 10 after the first 20 points. DWC went on a 5-1 run but was matched when the Mountaineers scored four straight in response. The teams were tied again at 19 and 23 before a Shannon tip clinched the second set 25-23.
In need of a set victory in the third the Mountaineers saw themselves tied at 11 and took a lead at 15-14. Then, Franco served two aces to give Southern Vermont an 18-14 lead en route to a 25-18 SVC win. The Mountaineers continued with its momentum into game four and started the set on a 5-0 run. SVC led at 8-2 and 12-6 for the closest margins of the set. The Mountaineers took the fourth set 25-13.
To start the pivotal fifth set Keven Walley crushed a kill to keep the momentum in the SVC corner. SVC opened a 4-0 lead to start the final set and went on to win 15-10.
The Mountaineers are now 2-0 in NECC play and 2-4 overall. Daniel Webster has lost both of its matches this season in five game marathons and will be back in action February 9th when they host Elms. SVC will take a week off before traveling to Newbury College for a tri-match with Wentworth.