Men’s Volleyball Wraps Up West Coast Trip With 3-1 Loss to Aurora

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Rivier men's volleyball team fell to Aurora in its final match of the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational slate by a final of 3-1 on Friday night at Gilbert Arena.

Rivier fell to 9-10 overall while Aurora improved to 7-8.

The Raiders called a timeout down 9-5 in the opening set to then battled to tie it at 12-12 on back-to-back Sokunbuth Ly kills. The Spartans would pull away to match point at 24-21, but Rivier would rally to score three in a row and tie things up at 24-24. Aurora scored the next two points to snag the first-set victory. Ly recorded a team-best six kills at a .286 clip. Both Chris Lezon (two kills) and Isaac Borges (three kills) hit .600 or better. Neil Rea had 13 assists as Rivier went down 1-0.

Riv fell behind early in the second set and would not be able to keep it close as the Spartans cruised to a 25-15 second set victory to take a commanding 2-0 match lead. Racine Camara recorded two kills, two aces, and two digs in the frame.

With their backs against the walls in the third, the Raiders came out swinging to take a 13-8 edge into an Aurora timeout. The Spartans closed the gap to three points at 17-14, but Riv again would rally to pull ahead by five on a Ly kill which made it 21-16. A kill and back-to-back Raiders errors brought Aurora within two points, but Rivier held on for a 25-21 win capped off by a Camara kill. Rivier hit .367 in the set with Ryan Peace, Lezon, and Camara all going errorless. Rivier was a perfect 18-for-18 on serve receive with Peter White handling half of the Spartans serves.

In a fourth set with five tie scores and three lead changes, it would be the Spartans who prevailed at the end as they pulled away a tenacious Rivier squad. The Raiders were limited to a .195 hitting percentage in the fourth as they saw their trip come to a close.

Rea finished with 44 assists, good for 11 per set, while adding three kills and three block assists. Lezon hit .333 as he notched seven kills in the setback.

Rivier returns to New Hampshire and will host Eastern Nazarene in a non-conference clash on Tuesday, March 19 at 6:00 p.m. at the Muldoon Center.