Men’s Volleyball Falls in Five at Endicott

BEVERLY, Mass. – After falling behind in the match 2-0, the Rivier men's volleyball team rallied in the third and fourth sets to force a fifth set. Eventually, the team fell to Endicott in a non-conference showdown, 3-2, on Wednesday night at MacDonald Gymnasium.

The Raiders fell by set scores of 20-25, 21-25, 25-21, 30-28, 15-17 to drop to 2-2 as the Gulls improved to 1-1.

Endicott hit .455 in each of the first two sets to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match with 26 kills in that span.

Trailing 15-13 in the third, Rivier called its first timeout which helped the Raiders launch a rally to tie the match at 20-20 as the Raiders burned their final timeout. Out of the break, Rivier went on a 4-0 run starting a kill from junior Matthew McCloskey followed by a service ace before two Endicott attack errors put it to set point. A Gulls' service error at 24-21 gave the Raiders a burst of momentum. Rivier used 12 kills at a .409 team hitting percentage to prolong the match.

Early in the fourth set, Rivier went up 8-4 using kills from four separate Raiders to force an Endicott timeout. Riv's lead improved to six points as senior Bassam Awde dropped in an ace to make it 11-5. Endicott battled back to close the gap, tying the set at 23-all on back-to-back kills by Corey Klass Jr. around a Raiders' timeout. A sideout kill from sophomore Racine Camara gave Rivier its first of five set points as the Raiders eventually battled to a 30-28 victory to force a fifth set. The visitors put together 15 kills at a .345 clip as first-year Cody Fitzpatrick recorded five kills on six errorless attempts to lead the way to a fifth and final game.

Rivier fell behind 8-5 at the break of the fifth set which caused the Raiders to regroup with a timeout. Still trailing 12-9, Fitzpatrick and McCloskey delivered timely kills in between a Camara block to tie the set. For the second straight set, both teams would need extra points to settle the score as the Gulls eventually used a double block following a kill to ice the match at 17-15. Both outsides, Camara and Fitzpatrick, notched three kills at a .400 clip in the fifth.

Rivier notched 13.5 total blocks to Endicott's 11.0 as Awde recorded six assists and one solo block in the setback. Sophomore libero Luis Castillo led the Raiders in digs with nine. Four Raiders notched double-digit kill totals as sophomore setter Justin Barish dished out 46 assists for the second consecutive match. Offensively, Fitzpatrick (11 kills, .409) and McCloskey (12 kills, .375) paced the Raiders.

The Raiders will make their home debut on Saturday, Feb. 1 in a tri-match against SUNY Potsdam and Springfield. Rivier will face the Bears at 11:00 a.m. before hosting the Pride at 3:00 p.m. at the Muldoon Center.