Men’s Volleyball Upsets No. 19 Lasell in GNAC Semifinals, 3-1

NEWTON, Mass. – The Rivier men's volleyball team powered past No. 19 Lasell in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Semifinals in four sets to earn its first ranked win of the season and advance to Saturday's title match for the first time since 2019.

The third-seeded Raiders won by set scores of 25-19, 25-19, 21-25, 25-20 and improved to 19-13 while the second-seeded Lasers fell to 17-12 and will await Monday's NCAA Division III Selection Show to learn their fate.

Rivier got out to a 14-11 lead in the first set, causing Lasell to call a timeout to regroup. From there, the Raiders grew their lead to four points on a kill from Ryan Peace making it 22-18, forcing the Lasers to burn their last timeout of the set. After a side-out kill by Theo Zaharewicz, two straight kills from Neil Rea and a bad set on the other side of the net gave Rivier a 1-0 lead. The visitors were hot offensively in the first, notching 15 kills at a team .464 hitting percentage. Both Rea and Peace went a perfect 4-for-4 with their attacks.

Lasell quickly called a timeout down five early in the second set after giving up points on five attack errors and a bad set. After a Rivier service error made it a one-point game, the Raiders rallied to record three of the next four points to take a 17-12 advantage into a Lasers timeout. Riv's lead would not fall below three for the remainder of the frame to improve their match lead to two sets. The Raiders limited Lasell to a .000 clip in the frame, while their offense hit .435 thanks to six kills from Sokunbuth Ly.

Lasell came out of the second intermission with energy as its season was on the line. Tied at 10-all, Rivier put together a 6-2 run with kills coming from Ly, Matthew McCloskey, and Chris Lezon over that stretch, leading to a Lasers timeout. Rivier would have to burn one of its timeouts soon thereafter as Lasell retied the match on four straight points out of the breather. Lasell battled to take the lead for good after an Aidan Norris kill made it 20-18, making it 2-1 in favor of the guests.

In the fourth set, Isaac Borges used a roll shot to knock the ball over the block and onto the floor to make it 11-7 in favor of Riv. Lasell rallied to lead 16-14 and force Riv into a timeout. A Lasell service error allowed for a quick side-out before Ly registered a nifty kill with his left hand and Rea recorded a solo block to give the Raiders the lead back, 17-16. At match point, Lezon hammered an unreturnable serve over the net for an ace, pushing the Raiders to the title match. Ly finished the set with six kills on nine errorless swings to hit .667.

Rea concluded his outing with 41 assists, seven kills at a .1000 clip, one ace, and eight digs. Nine kills for Peace and eight kills for Lezon, as well as two solo blocks from each of them helped Rivier secure a huge presence in the middle of the court. Peter White and Ly finished with nine digs each as Ly hit .471 while registering a team-best 18 kills.

The Raiders came out ahead in the season series against Lasell, 2-1.

Rivier now heads back to the GNAC Championship for the first time since 2019 when it faced off against Wentworth on home court and defeated the Leopards in straight sets to capture its ninth conference crown in program history. Now, both teams will square off again, this time with the script flipped.

The Raiders entered 2019's meeting as the top seed while ranked 13th in the AVCA poll with Wentworth coming to town as the second seed. On Saturday, the Leopards will look to defend their home and status as defending champs as the tournament's top team and the AVCA's third-ranked team.

First serve is set for noon on Saturday, April 13 at Tansey Gymnasium, with the winner advancing to the NCAA Tournament.