BENNINGTON, Vt. – In a Saturday afternoon men's volleyball tri-match at the Mountaineer Athletic Center on the campus of Southern Vermont College, Cairn University defeated both SVC and Daniel Webster College by 3-1 margins while the Mountaineers fell to the Eagles 3-1 in the opening match, a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) tilt.
DWC defeated Southern Vermont with game scores of 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, and 25-23. The Highlanders then bested Daniel Webster with set scores of 25-7, 25-16, 27-29, and 27-25. In the day's finale, Cairn knocked off SVC with tallies of 25-18, 20-25, 25-23, and 28-26.
With the pair of wins, CU improves its season record to 6-6. The split moves Daniel Webster's mark to 4-7 overall, 2-0 in the NECC, and Southern Vermont drops to 3-6 on the year, 1-1 in league play.
Daniel Webster 3, Southern Vt. 1
The Mountaineers were able to come out in the opening set and squeeze a victory before Daniel Webster took the next three for the match win. The two sides were about equal in the mistake column with DWC committing 28 hitting errors to the Mountaineers' 27, but the Eagles racked up 46 kills to SVC's 39 to hit .137 for the contest. Southern Vermont utilized the serve for eight aces compared to DWC's three, but the Eagles were strong defensively and popped up 57 digs to the Mountaineers' 48.
SVC junior Scott Fitzgerald (Fort Edward, N.Y.) led the team with 13 kills, adding eight digs, three assists and two aces to his line. Junior Keven Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) and senior Anthony Barahona (Eagle Rock, Calif.) added seven kills apiece while notching 10 and seven digs, respectively. Junior middle Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) had five kills and no hitting errors on 11 swings for a .455 attack percentage and chipped in with four block assists and a solo at the net. Senior setter Anthony Ayala (Pico Rivera, Calif.) assisted on 27 of the 33 Mountaineer kills, and junior libero Florentino Escovedo (Fresno, Calif.) tied the match-high of digs with 12.
Three Eagles made their way to double digits in the kills column with junior Joel Hendrix (Kane'ohe, Hawaii) leading all players with 14; he also tallied nine digs, six block assists and two solo blocks in the match. Sophomore middle Jose Vargas (Lawrence, Mass.) followed with 12 kills and five block assists while senior captain Joe Walz (E. Longmeadow, Mass.) put down 10 kills and popped up 11 digs. Sophomore setter Ariel Frias (Lawrence, Mass.) facilitated the offense with a match-best 37 assists, and sophomore libero James Kenney (Coventry, R.I.) tied Escovedo with 12 digs.
Cairn 3, Daniel Webster 1
After a hard-fought win, Daniel Webster seemed to struggle to get its offense clicking in the first two sets against Cairn with the Highlanders taking commanding game victories of 25-7 and 25-16. The Eagles then pushed back in an extended frame, eventually taking it 29-27, before Cairn closed out the match with another elongated set and 27-25 win.
Cairn totaled a sterling .306 hitting percentage in the contest, committing only 14 hitting errors and recording 47 kills on 108 attempts. The Highlander's best set was the first in which they hit .455 with seven kills and two errors on 11 swings. The Eagles were able to tally more kills with a total of 50, but their 25 hitting errors and four ball handling errors were detrimental in the effort. CU was sharper on the defensive end as well with 47 digs to Daniel Webster's 36.
Highlander junior outside hitter Josiah Buss (Rochester, N.Y.) and junior Ryan Garven (Newtown, Pa.) paced the team with 15 kills apiece while adding 12 digs and four block assists, respectively. Junior libero Matthew Rhodes (Allentown, Pa.) also had 12 digs in the contest, equaling Buss's match-high. Senior setter John Wilson (Allentown, Pa.) had a match-best 38 assists while helping out with 10 digs on the defensive end. Cairn totaled 10 blocks assists, five coming from sophomore middle Dan Winters (Upper Perkiomen, Pa.).
Hendrix once again led all players in the kill column, this time racking up 19 to go with six digs and four assists. Walz wasn't far behind with 17 kills and another six digs while Frias totaled 32 assists and a team-best 10 digs.
Cairn 3, Southern Vt. 1
In the day's finale, Cairn took the first set before Southern Vermont tied the match with a 25-20 game-two victory. The two sides continued to battle the rest of the way as the Highlanders scratched out a 25-23 win in the third stanza before coming back to take the fourth and final set 28-26.
Cairn owned just a slight 49-45 advantage in kills while Southern Vermont edged the dig column 48-45. But the Highlander's dominance at the net on the defensive side was the determining factor as CU finished the match with 24 block assists and another three solos; SVC managed just three solo blocks and another six block assists.
Barahona led the Mountaineers with 16 kills while notching seven digs, two block assists and a solo block, and Walley added 11 kills and nine digs. Fitzgerald chipped in with 10 kills and eight digs while Ayala had 41 assists. Escovedo recorded a match-high 11 digs in the loss.
Garven paced the Highlanders with a match-best 17 kills, adding eight digs and two assists to his line. Buss was on his heels with 16 kills and a team-high 10 digs to go with five block assists. Sophomore middle Randall Colson (Holbrooke, N.Y.) got in on the action with 14 kills and four block assists, and Winters again led all players with eight block assists. Wilson assisted on 43 of the 47 Highlander kills while Rhodes added nine digs.
Southern Vermont is back in conference action on Wednesday when the Mountaineers visit Newbury College for a 7 p.m. match while Daniel Webster also visits Newbury next, set to play the Nighthawks on Monday at 7 p.m. Cairn is also back at it on Wednesday as the Highlanders travel to Lancaster Bible College for a 7 p.m. tilt.