Men's Volleyball falls at #1 Springfield College

(Springfield, Mass.) The Rivier University Men's Volleyball program fought to the very end but was unable to come up with the upset victory this evening as they lost to #1 Springfield College in straight sets. The Raiders lost the three sets by scores of 23-25, 22-25 and 16-25. Rivier is now just 6-3 overall on the young season while Springfield improves to 11-1.

Sophomore Grant Andler (Chicago, Ill.) laced a team high 10 kills and both senior Mike Hadder (Yucaipa, Calif.) and sophomore Matt Heckler (Simi Valley, Calif.) recorded six kills and a .600+ hitting percentage throughout the contest. Junior setter Tyler Blank (Rochester, N.Y.) handed out 23 assists with senior Nick Ochoa (Whittier, Calif.) patrolling the back line; compiling five digs.

The top ranked Pride were paced by the offensive output from Luis Vega, who hammered down 15 kills and a .722 hitting percentage. Julian Welsh-White and Greg Woods both registered double-digit kills with 11 and 10, respectively. Luis Garcia Rubio directed the offense with 43 assists.

Rivier will return to the court on Thursday evening as they travel to Boston, Mass. for a Great Northeast Athletic Conference matchup with Wentworth Institute of Technology. Both Wentworth and the Raiders were receiving votes for the AVCA Top 15 Poll in the latest release.