Rivier Wins Battle Against Division 1 Sacred Heart

Nashua, NH – The Rivier College Raiders rebounded after a tough showing against MIT on Tuesday night with a well fought 3-2 win. Rivier College (25-8 overall; 8-1 GNAC) battled to a 5 set victory over Division I Sacred Heart University for their 25th win of the season. The Raiders and the Pioneers slugged it out alternating set victories highlighted by bookend extra point wins in the 1st and 5th set for the home team. In the 1st set Rivier stormed back from a 3 point deficit late in the set to win 28-26 while in set 5 the Blue and White gave up a late 4 point lead only to hold on for a 22-20 win for the match. Senior outside hitter Jared Andreozzi (Barrington, RI) had a match high 24 kills for the Raiders who improved their record to 25-8 on the season.

Both teams came out on fire in the first set with each team hitting over .300 percent. The set saw 15 tie scores and 6 lead changes with neither team looking to be in a 1-0 hole. The Raiders were trailing 24-22 after an Enzo Mackenzie (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) kill, but a service error by Mike Komlanc (St. Croix, Virgin Islands) kept the Raiders alive. A block by Steve Visentin (Cheshire, CT) and Aaron Almario (Alhambra, CA) on a Mackenzie attack tied the game at 24 and a second hitting error by Mackenzie put the Raiders up by 1. 3 straight kills alternating kills had the game tied at 26 all when a Mackenzie serving error and a Bradley Borsay (Richmond, RI) hitting error handed the Raiders a 28-26 win to go up 1-0 in the match.

The Raiders went down early in set two on a Tim Sadowski (Salem, NH) service run that quickly had the visitors up 5-1. After a Rivier sideout Mackenzie rattled off another 3 straight to extend the lead to 8-2. The Raiders couldn't recover from the slow start and found themselves down by as many as 9 points in the set and eventually lost the set 25-18 on a Mackenzie kill.

Oddly enough, the third set went in exactly the opposite direction. Almario opened up the game 3-0 for the Raiders and later Andreozzi went on a 4 point run to put the Raiders up 18-10. With the Raiders up 23-18, Rivier junior Drew Corwin (Sudbury, MA) served out the game, getting two kills from Andreozzi and a block by Andreozzi and Almario to seal the win 25-18 and go up 2-1 in the match.

The fourth set had 3 tie scores, all in the first 3 points before the Pioneers of Sacred Heart took a lead and didn't give it back. The Raiders stayed within 4 or 5 points throughout the game, but couldn't come up with any key stops to get themselves back into the set. Down 18-23, the Raiders found hope after 2 straight Pioneer errors, but kills by Mackenzie and Komlanc sealed the 4th set 25-21 and forced a deciding 5th set.

The final set kept the fans on the edge of their seats. The Raiders went out to a 6-2 lead after a Mackenzie attack error, but a sideout kill from Jose Juelle (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) followed by a Raider attack error from Taylor Lindner (Cheshire, CT) cut the lead to 2 at 6-4. Both teams traded points over the next few and the Raiders grabbed an 8-5 lead for the side switch on a Juelle service error. Sacred Heart cut the lead to 1 at 10-9 on a Juelle kill, but a Sadowski service error and two more straight points on Steve Wood's (Spencerport, NY) float serve, which included a huge block by Visentin and Lindner, gave the Raiders a 13-9 lead. The Raiders couldn't close it out though as the Sacred heart came storming back to tie the game at 14 after an Andreozzi attack error. Sacred Heart went up 15-14 on a block by Komlanc, but a service error tied the game again. The Pioneers kept the advantage through 19-19 when an error by Mackenzie gave the Raiders a 20-19 lead. Mackenzie knocked in the next one to tie the game again at 20-20 and Andreozzi answered right back to make it 21-20. Rivier's Steve Wood came in to serve and after an attack that was put back onto the Pioneer side, Juelle couldn't hit the attack back over the net and the Raiders came away with the 22-20 win and the 3-2 Match victory.

Senior Jared Andreozzi scored a match high 23 kills along with 8 digs and 4 blocks to lead the Raiders. Setter Steve Visentin directed a balanced offense placing 3 RIV attackers in double digits for kills. The 6'2 sophomore dished out 46 assists while helping out with 5 digs and 3 blocks on defense. Senior John Furka (Massapequa, NY) and freshman Sam Kazlas (Allentown, PA) had 10 and 11 kills respectively while combining for 4 blocks and sophomore middle Taylor Lindner accounted for 7 kills and 3 blocks for RIV. The junior backcourt trio of Chris Convertito (Trumbull, CT), Drew Corwin, and Andrew Paine (Quincy, MA) were solid combining for 15 digs while being the foundation of the Raiders receive. Corwin served tough as well picking up a match high 2 ace serves. Freshman Aaron Almario rounded off the defense with a match high 7 blocks.

Mackenzie led the Pioneers with 18 kills and Juelle added 12 kills in the set back. Sadowski tossed up 48 assists and added 7 kills and 2 service aces for Sacred Heart.

Rivier will host GNAC conference foe Albertus Magnus College on Saturday, March 19th at 1:00 PM. The two teams will play two matches back to back to satisfy the GNAC conference requirements.