Rivier Captures 2011 GNAC Men’s Volleyball Title

Nashua, NH – For the fourth straight season Rivier College has won the GNAC men's volleyball championship with a 3-1 victory over Lasell College by scores of 25-20, 25-16, 22-25, 25-17. Raiders senior outside hitter Jared Andreozzi (Barrington, RI) was named the tournament MVP after dropping 16 kills against Johnson & Wales University in the first semifinal match of the day, followed by 22 kills against Lasell in the finals.

Rivier controlled the first two sets of play easily with consistent passing and a well balanced offensive attack. Only two times in the first two sets was the score tied and at no point did Lasell take a lead as the Raiders jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the match. The Raiders out-blocked the Lasers 10-5 in the first two sets as well to give the home team a big defensive boost. Andreozzi notched 7 kills and 3 blocks in the opening set and another 5 kills in the second set. Lasell's Spencer Parker (Newington, CT) led the Laser attack with 5 kills in each of the first two sets.

Lasell came out strong in set 3, jumping out to 13-9 lead with some tough serving and good defense. The Raiders came back to tie the game at 17 but quickly fell behind again after two straight hitting errors, including a block by Lasell's Micah Aiu (Honolulu, HI) and Andrew Glenn (Westport, CT). The Raiders got to within 1 at 21-20, but couldn't get much closer as two more attack errors and a service ace by Parker pushed the game out of reach for the Raiders. Lasell would take the third set 25-22 after an Alex Xenidis (Shelton, CT) service error.

Rivier's Drew Corwin (Sudbury, MA) started off the fourth set with three straight service aces to get the ball rolling in favor of the home team and Lasell was never able to regain any momentum. The Raiders kept the lead for the entire set on strong play from Xenidis and Sam Kazlas (Allentown, PA) who each recorded 4 kills with Xenidis also putting back 2 blocks. The Raiders cruised to the 25-17 victory in the set and a 3-1 win in the match to capture the 2011 GNAC Men's Volleyball Championship and receive the conference's automatic bid to the 2011 NECVA Championship Tournament to be held April 1-3 in Hoboken, NJ at Steven Institute of Technology.

Rivier setter Steve Visentin (Cheshire, CT) ran the offense, dishing out 40 assists while grabbing 2 kills and 4 blocks. Senior John Furka (Massapequa, NY tallied 3 kills and a block while libero Chris Convertito (Trumbull, CT) and defensive specialist Corwin combined for 10 digs.

Parker led Lasell with 13 kills and 2 blocks while setter and GNAC Rookie of the Year Andrew Glenn finished with 26 assists, 4 kills and 2 blocks.

Lasell made it to the championship match after upsetting second seeded Emmanuel College in the second semifinal match of the day 3-1 (25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 25-23). Lasell took a 1-0 lead in the match right out of the gate, but Emmanuel punched right back and took the second set 25-18 in what looked to be the start of the team waking up after a short slumber. However, Lasell didn't believe Emmanuel was the better team today and continued to fight coming right back with a 25-20 win in set three. The final set looked like Emmanuel had given up and Lasell was going to cruise to the victory, but a 5 point service run by Emmanuel's Curtis Abram (San Luis Obispo, CA) tied the game at 22 and eventually the Saints took a 23-22 lead. Lasell's Harry Strobel (Westport, CT) sided out to tie the game at 23 and it looked like the game may be going to extra points. A Lasell serve led to a back and forth rally until Abram took a swing from the back row and a triple block stuffed it back to give Lasell a 24-23 lead. The next serve led to a right side attack by the Saints Matt Salvi (Trumbull, CT) who tipped the ball just out of bounds to complete the Lasell upset.

Spencer Parker led Lasell with 19 kills to go along with 3 blocks while Strobel added 13 kills and 2 blocks. Micah Aiu had a team high 7 blocks and Mike Harrington (Billerica, MA) added 7 kills for a .600 hitting percentage. The Saints were led by Abram's 17 kills and Thomas McCaffrey's (Massapequa, NY) 9 kills and 3 blocks.

In the first semifinal of the day the Raiders beat Johnson and Wales University 3-0 by scores of 25-16, 25-20 and 25-14. Rivier controlled the match from the start, getting most of the reserves into the match. With only 2 lead changes and 4 tie scores in the entire match, the Raiders cruised to the victory. Andreozzi led all hitters with 16 kills while middle hitters Alex Xenidis and Aaron Almario (Alhambra, CA) recorded 5 and 4 kills respectively. Xenidis notched a team high 5 blocks as the Raiders put back 9.5 blocks in the match. JWU was led by Petar Yanakiev (Varna, Bulgaria), who picked up 11 kills, and Dan Struebing (Coventry, RI), who had a team high 4 blocks.

2011 GNAC Men's Volleyball All-Tournament Team

MVP-Jared Andreozzi - Rivier

Andrew Glenn - Lasell

Steve Visentin - Rivier

Spencer Parker - Lasell

Drew Corwin - Rivier

Curtis Abram - Emmanuel

Eric Minnich - Johnson & Wales