Amirault Lifts Men’s Volleyball Past Colby-Sawyer in Five-Set Thriller

THE BASICS 

Score: 
Emmanuel College, 3; Colby-Sawyer College, 2 (25-20, 24-26, 25-13, 20-25, 16-14)

Records: 
Emmanuel College Saints (1-0, 1-0 GNAC)
Colby-Sawyer College Chargers (0-3, 0-1 GNAC)

Location: Boston, Mass. – Andy Yosinoff Court  

Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2022

THE LEAD – First year outside hitter Jyles Amirault (Andover, Mass.) burst onto the college scene with a 17-kill debut to lift the Emmanuel College men's volleyball team past Colby-Sawyer College, 3-2 (25-20, 24-26, 25-13, 20-25, 16-14), Tuesday evening in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Saints never trailed in the opening set, cruising to a 25-20 win before the Chargers answered with a hard-fought 26-24 victory in the second set to even the match at 1-1. Colby-Sawyer led by as many as six points in the set before Emmanuel tied the score at 19, 20, 23 and 24 only to see their late push thwarted by the visitors.
• EC rebounded in the third for a convincing 25-13 win in their most dominant set of the match. The Saints hit .400 as a team while holding the Chargers to a negative -.208 hitting clip to move ahead in the series, 2-1.
• Colby-Sawyer remained poised and responded with a 25-20 victory in the fourth frame, taking advantage of a combined 15 Emmanuel hitting or service errors to send the match to a decisive fifth set.
• The Chargers raced out to an early 4-1 lead in the final set before EC pushed three straight points to even the score at 4. From that point until the end, the squads traded points all the way to a 12-12 score. An attacking error gave the visitor's a 13-12 advantage before the Saints called timeout to regroup. Out of the break, Emmanuel responded with two straight points including an Amirault kill to make it match point at 14-13. CSC got some help with an EC hitting error to even the score at 14-all before an Amirault kill followed by another Charger attack error sealed the win for the Saints, 16-14.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• The 17 kills for Amirault is the most by an Emmanuel player in a season-debut since Michael Townsend '10 collected 19 kills in a 3-2 opening win vs. Endicott in 2010. Amirault also added three aces and six digs in his debut.
• Senior outside hitters Orlando Plagata (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Eric Miller (La Grange, Ill.) paced the Chargers with 14 and 13 kills each.
• EC junior setter Roman Fabrizio (Salem, N.H.) ran a balanced offensive with 41 assists on the night while senior Tyler Behsman (Derry, N.H.) paced the defensive front with a match-high 12 digs.
• Neither team served the ball particularly well as the Chargers posted 30 services errors in the loss compared to 22 for the host Saints.
• This marks just the third opening-season win for the squad since 2011, with the other wins coming in 2020 and 2016.

UP NEXT

• Emmanuel is back in action tomorrow evening when they head to Eastern Nazarene College for a 7:00 PM contest. No spectators will be allowed in the ENC gym at this time.
• Colby-Sawyer is idle until January 29 when they head to Chicopee, Mass. for another GNAC contest vs. Elms College.