BENNINGTON, Vt. – The Southern Vermont College men's volleyball team swept its home tri-match Saturday afternoon at the Mountaineer Athletic Center, first defeating Lesley University 3-0 before knocking off the Community College of Rhode Island 3-1 in the day-cap.
The middle match saw CCRI take down Lesley 3-1. SVC's and LU's contests with CCRI were exhibitions and do not count toward their overall season records.
Southern Vt. defeated the Lynx in a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) tilt with set scores of 25-13, 25-14, and 25-10. The Mountaineers move to 6-6 on the season, 3-1 in the NECC, while Lesley falls to 0-10 on the year with a 0-4 mark in the league.
The Knights gathered victory over Lesley with game scores of 25-15, 25-12, 30-32, and 25-18. CCRI then fell to Southern Vt. with set margins of 25-16, 23-25, 25-16, and 25-17.
Southern Vt. 3, Lesley 0
The Mountaineers hit a season-best .289 in their win over the Lynx, committing just 12 attacking errors on 76 swings. Strong service also played a part in the victory as SVC scored 13 times from behind the line, compared to just one on the Lesley side.
Southern Vt. used a balanced attack that saw senior Anthony Barahona (Eagle Rock, Calif.) tie the match-high of kills with just six to go with his five digs. Junior Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) was perfect on the offensive end, recording kills on each of his five attack attempts. Junior Scott Fitzgerald (Fort Edward, N.Y.) added another five kills, four service aces, three assists and a match-best nine digs. Senior setter Anthony Ayala (Pico Rivera, Calif.) assisted on 25 of the 30 Mountaineer kills while pitching in on the defensive side with five digs and a block assist.
Lesley was paced by freshman Tyler Burns (Newton, Pa.) who also had six kills in the match to go with his four digs. Freshman setter Michael Ulacco (Winchester, Mass.) recorded 10 assists and a team-high six digs, tying that of sophomore C.J. Sutton (Billerica, Mass.) who added two kills and an assist.
CCRI 3, Lesley 1
The Knights took the first two sets in their win over the Lynx before LU battled for an extended 32-30 third set win. CCRI then closed out the match with a 25-18 fourth set victory, hitting .224 across the four frames. The Knights served up 15 aces against LU while recording 52 kills to the Lynx's 24.
CCRI saw Brandon Tordoff lead the way with 20 kills, adding a side-high 11 digs, two block assists and two aces to his line. Elson Abotsi followed with nine kills while Tommy Reyes finished with six kills, 31 assists, eight digs and seven service aces. Derek Gouveia did his part with 10 digs and four aces.
Junior Melvin Morales (Chelsea, Mass.) led the Lynx with nine kills while popping up four digs and serving an ace. Burns followed in the kill column with five to go with five digs, and Ulacco tallied 19 assists and seven digs in the effort. Senior Aqib Shah (Watertown, Mass.) led the team with 10 digs on the match, adding three kills to his line.
Southern Vt. 3, CCRI 1
In the final match of the day, both sides had trouble getting their serves right as the two combined for 32 service errors. But the Mountaineers were able to notch a .301 hitting percentage while the Knights mustered a .038 mark on the offensive end.
Dighton again hit extremely well for the Mountaineers, racking up a match-high 13 kills and committing only two attacking errors on 20 attempts for a .550 hitting percentage. Junior Keven Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) followed with 10 kills to go with his four digs and four service aces, and Baranhona notched eight kills and a team-high nine digs in the win. Ayala assisted his offense 39 times while chipping in with two kills and seven digs.
Reyes and Tordoff each had seven kills for the Knights in the loss to SVC; Reyes added 15 assists and five digs while Tordoff had eight digs and three service aces. Chris Weston led all players with 14 digs in the match.
The Mountaineers now gear up for a big conference tilt at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with Endicott College which enters the match unbeaten in league play. Lesley will next host Daniel Webster College on Tuesday for an 8 p.m. contest at Buckingham Browne & Nichols.