Raiders almost knock down #1 Nazareth, still win three at Tournament

(Rochester, NY) This past weekend the Men's Volleyball team won three of four games at the Purple and Gold Invitational in Rochester, New York. The 14th ranked Raiders had wins over D'Youville College, Ramapo College, and Wells College in the weekend series. Senior Steve Visentin (Cheshire, CT) and sophomore Shane Spellman (Norwich, CT) were named to the all-tournament team.

In their first match-up of the tournament the Raiders fell in a decisive fifth set against top ranked Nazareth College (16-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17, 15-13). The Raiders took the first two sets but were unable to close out the victory against the Golden Flyers due to late errors and questionable calls. Visentin led the Raiders with 47 of their 55 assists in the match and would add 8 digs. The duo of Spellman and sophomore Chris Markuson (Cupertino, CA) was completely dominant for the Raider attack. Spellman had 16 kills and 5 digs while Markuson led the way with 18 kills and 7 digs. Junior libero Matt Bynon (Burnt Hills, NY) and his freshman counterpoint Nick Ochoa (Whittier, CA) each had 9 digs and 3 assists. With the victory Nazareth remained undefeated on the season.

In their second contest of the day the Raiders were matched up against D'Youville College and Rivier notched the victory in straight sets (25-18, 25-15, 25-18). Rivier dominated D'Youville behind 30 assists and 8 kills from Visentin and 12 kills from Danville, NH native junior Terrence Matatall. Bynon led the way with 6 digs in a collective effort in which 6 other Raiders collected multiple digs. Rivier posted a .386 hitting percentage opposed to the mere .082 by their opponents. With the victory the Raiders improved to 14-10 on the season.

On Saturday morning the Raiders handled the Ramapo Roadrunners in three straight sets (28-26, 25-20, 25-19). Spellman led the Raider offense with 12 kills and added 3 digs. Visentin notched 25 more assists and 4 digs in the Raider victory. Leading the Rivier defensive effort was Bynon with 7 digs and junior big man Aaron Almario with 3 solo blocks and 4 block assists. Almario also had 4 kills in the match. Markuson filled the stat sheet with 9 kills, 5 digs, and 3 block assists for the Raiders. The victory gave the Raiders huge momentum going into their final match of the weekend.

The starting lineup of the Raiders saw a facelift in their final match of the tournament in which they easily defeated the Wells College Express in straight sets (25-15, 25-21, 25-18). The Tutino brothers out of Manoville, New York (Matt and Brendan) led the Raiders offense with 8 kills apiece. Also having key kills for the Raiders in the victory was the trio of Californians sophomore Cameron Phegley-Walker (Los Angeles, CA) with 8, freshman Kevin Baran-Maguire (Newport Beach, CA) with 6, and classmate Mike Hadder (Yucaipa, CA) with 5. Freshman Mike Hovnanian (Methuen, MA) led a group of 7 Raiders to have multiple digs with 5. Once again the Raiders were dominant offensively doubling their opponents kill total (Rivier 40, Wells 19) and posting a .321 kill percentage.

With the victories the Raiders improve to 16-10 on the season and will return to the court on March 26 when they will travel to western Massachusetts to face Springfield College.