Men's Volleyball: Rivier swept at home by #1 Springfield

(Nashua, N.H.) The Rivier University Men's Volleyball team welcomed top-ranked Springfield College to the Muldoon Gymnasium tonight in a non-conference affair. The Pride escaped victorious with a clean 3-0 win and are now 7-1 overall on the year while the Raiders even out at 4-4.

Rivier fell by set scores of 14-25, 22-25 and 21-25.

Recently named Great Northeast Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week, junior Dashaun Graham (Highland Falls, N.Y.) was the offensive leader in this one as he hammered down a team-high eight kills to go along with his .389 hitting percentage. Freshman David Smith (Clinton, Ohio) added five kills and senior Garrett Bucklin (Jamestown, R.I.) dished out 19 assists. On the defensive side of the floor, junior Dahnny Rogers (Penfield, N.Y.) scooped up five digs and sophomore Cam Roth (Coventry, R.I.) chipped in with two total blocks.

Springfield was paced by the senior duo of Ricardo Padilla Ayala (San Juan, Puerto Rico) & Sergio Figueroa Velez (San Juan, Puerto Rico), who each smashed 16 kills with Ayala adding a .542 hitting percentage and a team-high eight digs. Freshman setter Eli Gabriel Irizarry Pares (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) was the assist leader with 35 while adding three total blocks over the three set match.

Rivier will return to action this Saturday afternoon as they travel to Hoboken, New Jersey for a tri-match at Stevens Institute of Technology with Lehman College. First game against Lehman is scheduled to begin at 2pm. Springfield will also be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they travel to Vassar College for a tri-match with Vassar and Saint Joseph's (L.I.).