Rivier 2-1 At NECVA Tournament

Hoboken NJ - Rivier College (33-9 overall; 11-1 GNAC) made it to the semi-final round of the North Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) tournament but came up just short of advancing to the championship round of the last ever NECVA tournament.  Senior Jared Andreozzi (Barrington, RI) and sophomore Taylor Lindner (Cheshire, CT) were named to the All Tournament Team for their all around solid play over the course of the Raiders three matches in the tournament. 

Rivier, the second seed of the tourney, posted a 3-0 win over #15 Bard College to open up the tournament on Friday afternoon. On Saturday Rivier then posted a hard fought 3-2 victory over #7 Medaille College in the quarter-finals to move onto the semi-finals of the 16 team tournament for the 2nd consecutive season.

The Raiders quickly dropped the first two sets in their semi-final match against #3 Baruch College only to come roaring back to win the next two sets to tie the match. The 5th set saw the score knotted at 8's before two consecutive errors by Rivier gave Baruch a two point cushion and eventually the momentum for a 15-12 win and a shot at the NECVA Championship title.

Andreozzi led all Raiders with 52 kills, 23 digs, and 4 ace serves. The All GNAC 1st Team player also blocked well with 15 blocks on the weekend.  Lindner thumped home 29 kills while putting back 14 blocks to earn All Tournament Team honors and sophomore setter Steve Visentin (Cheshire, CT) dished out 131 assists while directing the RIV offense. Junior middle hitter Alex Xenidis (Shelton, CT) was solid all weekend posting 27 kills and a team high 17 blocks, including a monster 10 block performance against Medaille and 17 kills against Baruch. Senior and freshman pin hitters John Furka (Massapequa, NY) and Sam Kazlas (Allentown, PA) scored 20 and 15 kills respectively while the junior trio of Chris Convertito (Trumbull, CT), Drew Corwin (Sudbury, MA), and Andrew Paine (Quincy, MA) did the bulk of the passing and combined for 41 of the Raiders 110 team digs.

#2 Rivier  (3) 25  25  25
#15 Bard (0) 20  12  19

#2 Rivier      (3) 25  21  25  18  15
#7 Medaille  (2) 17  25  22  25   7

#2 Rivier   (2) 21  22  25  25  12
#3 Baruch (3) 25  25  21  23  15