BROOKLINE, Mass. – Nine kills and zero attacking errors on 13 swings by junior Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) helped Southern Vt. College in a 3-0 winning effort at Newbury College Wednesday night in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's volleyball action.
SVC took the match with set scores of 29-27, 25-16, and 25-22.
The win improves the Mountaineer's season mark to 4-6 with a 2-1 NECC record while Newbury falls to 1-14 overall, 1-5 in the league.
Dighton added four block assists to his .692 hitting percentage while senior Anthony Barahona (Eagle Rock, Calif.) had a match-high 13 kills, eight digs, five block assists and a solo. Junior Keven Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) followed with 11 kills and nine digs, and junior libero Florentino Escovedo (Fresno, Calif.) led all players with 15 digs. Senior setter Anthony Ayala (Pico Rivera, Calif.) assisted on 41 of the 45 Mountaineer kills on the night.
Nighthawk senior Jake Powell (Salinas, Calif.) led his team with 12 kills with freshman Billy Stephen (Windermere, Fla.) on his heels at 11 to go with a side-best 13 digs. Senior setter Pat Robidoux (Barrington, R.I.) tallied a double-double with 32 assists and 10 digs.
In a hard-fought first set, neither team led by more than two points as the frame was extended with kills from both sides in the late going. Walley put down a kill to give the Mountaineers a 28-27 advantage before a Newbury attacking error handed the game to SVC.
The second frame saw the Nighthawks come out and tack up the first three points before they committed five straight unforced errors to give Southern Vt. the nod. After more kills and mistakes from NC, Dighton ripped off three consecutive kills to put the Mountaineers up 10-7. He then started another string of three SVC kills to take some breathing room with a 15-9 lead. Newbury was able to trim it to a four-point deficit until, at 19-15, Southern Vt. went on a 6-1 run to close out the set, capped by another kill from Dighton.
After swapping points to begin the third, NC gained momentum to take four straight and a 6-2 lead. It would be short-lived, however, as the Mountaineers responded with four unanswered of their own to tie it up. The Nighthawks then carried a narrow advantage before a pair of SVC attacking errors gave them a 14-10 upper hand. Once again, the points went back-and-forth until Southern Vt. rattled off eight of the next nine to take a 23-21 lead. Stephen was able to tally a point before kills by junior Scott Fitzgerald (Fort Edward, N.Y.) and Barahona put the match away.
Southern Vt. turns right around to a Thursday night hosting of The Sage Colleges at 7 p.m. while Newbury looks ahead to a Saturday tri-match in which it takes on Lehman (12 p.m.) and Mount Ida College (2 p.m.).