Men’s Volleyball Downs Lasell, Falls to Emmanuel (Mass.) in GNAC Tri-Match

BOSTON, Mass. – Rivier men's volleyball beat Lasell in four sets before being swept by Emmanuel (Mass.) in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tri-match on Saturday afternoon at the Jean Yawkey Center.

With the 1-1 day, the Raiders moved to 12-11 (6-2 GNAC).

Rivier will now turn its attention to Endicott in a mid-week non-conference matchup against the Gulls scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27 at the Muldoon Center.

Rivier 3, Lasell 1

In the opening match of the day for the Raiders, the middles went to work in a major way as Chris Lezon and Matthew McCloskey each recorded double-digit kill totals while hitting .600 or better.

The first set took extra points to secure, with Isaac Borges willing the game to set point before a Lasell attack error gave Rivier a 1-0 match lead.

Lasell ultimately took set two just that as a pair of kills by Theo Zaharewicz gave the Lasers a 27-25 victory to tie the match at 1-1.

Racine Camara gave Rivier an early 2-0 lead in the third set off an ace and a kill. The Raiders led for the length of the set, eventually earning a 25-23 victory on a Borges kill.

The Raiders bolted out to a 6-1 lead thanks to a pair of aces by Borges. Lasell would take a 9-8 lead on a Brenden Joyce kill, but Rivier would continue to scrap for a lead. After commanding the end of the set, Rivier earned the win on a service error by the Lasers.

Neil Rea dished out 39 assists as the Raiders hit at a .286 team percentage. Borges and Lezon each had three of Rivier's nine aces. Matthew Diamond led the dig effort with seven while Lezon and Rea each notched four block assists.

Emmanuel (Mass.) 3, Rivier 0

Emmanuel performed strongly on offense in the second match of the day, downing the Raiders by set scores of 25-20, 25-20, 25-18.

Rivier was limited to a .141 hitting percentage while the Saints notched a .347 clip.

Rivier's top performers once again were middles Matthew McCloskey and Chris Lezon.