Men’s Volleyball Earns Pair of Wins Over Elms

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Rivier men's volleyball team downed Elms in both matches of a Saturday doubleheader at Picknelly Arena, coming away with a 3-1 victory in the morning Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) match before sweeping the Blazers in a designated non-conference clash in the afternoon.

The Raiders won by set scores of 23-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-20 and 25-21, 25-13, 25-16 to improve to 9-7 (4-1 GNAC) while the Blazers fell to 3-14 and remain winless in conference action.

Next up, Rivier will head to the West Coast for the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational beginning on Thursday, March 7.

 Rivier 3, Elms 1

Despite five kills at a .571 clip coming from Sebastian Menchaca, Rivier narrowly fell in the first set to fall into a 1-0 deficit. The opening set of the match was highly-contested with 10 tie scores and two lead changes.

In the second set, the Raiders used a seven-point swing beginning with a Ryan Peace kill to take a 13-7 lead and force Elms into a timeout. From there, Rivier would maintain its lead through the remainder of the set thanks in part to three kills and a pair of aces from Sokunbuth Ly, knotting the match up at one-all. Ly finished the set with five kills while hitting .571 while registering two digs. Chris Lezon notched three blocks in the frame.

In the third game, Rivier held the lead from the early stages until two straight points by the Blazers at match point tied the set 24-24. From there Matthew McCloskey and Ly earned consecutive kills to give the guests a 2-1 edge in the match. Neil Rea handed out 14 assists as the Raiders recorded 17 kills.

Rivier's largest lead of the fourth came following an Elms timeout as Ly powered home a kill with an assist credited to Racine Camara which put the Raiders up 21-14. From there, Rivier held on for the win, which was capped off by a Rea kill with a helper coming from Peter White. Peace hit .500 in the final set as he produced a team-high four kills.

Rea finished with 34 assists while Justin Barish added 12 as Rivier finished with a team .180 percentage. Ly finished with a team-best 12 kills at a .292 clip in the victory.

Rivier 3, Elms 0

Rivier led 11-6 at an Elms timeout in the first set as five different Raiders recorded kills to that point. The Raiders held the lead through the rest of the opening game to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Matthew McCloskey had four kills at a .500 clip to start things off for the visitors.

Both teams traded points at the start of the second before a 9-1 Raiders run forced Elms to burn a timeout trailing 16-8. Rivier dominated the rest of the set, eventually winning by 12 to go up 2-0. Neil Rea registered nine assists as Rivier hit .435 in the second.

Riv got out to an early advantage in the third and powered ahead for a 25-16 win as they limited the Blazers to a -.111 hitting percentage to earn the sweep.

Rea finished with 37 assists as the team hit .360 in its ninth win of the campaign. He also led the team in digs with eight. Peter White was a perfect 16-for-16 on receive while digging five Elms attacks. Chris Lezon recorded five blocks, the most of any player.