PROVIDENCE, R.I. – In the first day of the Johnson & Wales University Tip-off Tournament, the Southern Vermont College men's volleyball team started its 2014 season by splitting Friday evening with a 3-1 win over New England College Conference (NECC) foe Regis College and a 3-0 loss to the hosting Wildcats. 

SVC took down the Pride with game scores of 26-24, 19-25, 25-13, and 25-20 with help from a .287 team attacking percentage. The Mountaineers were then defeated by JWU in straight sets by margins of 25-16, 25-14, and 25-18.

Game 1: Southern Vermont 3, Regis 1
Against Regis, Southern Vermont sophomore middle Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) committed only two hitting errors on 32 swings, adding 15 kills for a .406 hitting percentage. Junior Keven Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) led the team with 16 kills, recording a .323 attacking percentage on 31 attempts (six errors) while junior transfer Scott Fitzgerald (Fort Edward, N.Y.) notched 11 kills in his first performance as a Mountaineer, adding five digs, three assists and two block assists.

Senior setter Anthony Ayala (Pico Rivera, Calif.) helped orchestrate the offense, assisting on 39 of the 44 SVC kills, and junior libero Florentino Escovedo (Fresno, Calif.) popped up a team-best seven digs in the win.

Game 2: Johnson & Wales 3, Southern Vermont 0
In the loss to JWU, Fitzgerald led the Mountaineers with a team-high nine kills while Wally and Escovedo followed with five apiece. Wally and Dighton tied with SVC-bests of seven digs, and Ayala tallied 18 assists on the offensive end.

The Wildcat frontcourt was problematic for Southern Vermont as the hosts totaled five solo blocks and an additional 14 block assists. JWU sophomore Matt Jenkins (Damascus, Md.) recorded a match-high 10 kills in the win while three other Wildcats notched nine.

The Mountaineers finish the JWU Tip-off Saturday with matches against Lasell College (10 a.m.) and Community College of Rhode Island (12 p.m.).