Saints Suffer Tri-Match Setback vs. ENC & No. 5 Springfield

QUINCY, Mass. - The Emmanuel College men’s volleyball team fell twice on Saturday morning in non-conference action at Eastern Nazarene College. The Saints dropped a 3-0 decision to the host Lions in the opener before falling to No. 5 Springfield College, 3-0, in the second match of the tri.

Saints Suffer Tri-Match Setback vs. ENC & No. 5 Springfield
Video Box Score Box Score

Team Stats

February 25, 2023

THE BASICS 

Scores: 
Match 1: Eastern Nazarene, 3 – Emmanuel, 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-21)
Match 2: Springfield, 3 – Emmanuel, 0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-14)

Records: 
Emmanuel College Saints (9-7, 3-2 GNAC)
#5 Springfield College Pride (15-2)
Eastern Nazarene College Lions (9-7, 0-0 NECC)

Location: Quincy, Mass. – Lahue Athletic Center

Date: Saturday, February 25, 2023

THE LEAD – The Emmanuel College men's volleyball team fell twice on Saturday morning in non-conference action at Eastern Nazarene College. The Saints dropped a 3-0 decision to the host Lions in the opener before falling to No. 5 Springfield College, 3-0, in the second match of the tri.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Match 1 vs. ENC)

  • Eastern Nazarene captured a 25-21 win in the first set to snag a 1-0 edge. They opened up a 5-0 lead to start the day and never trailed in the opening set win.
  • In set two, Emmanuel led 18-14 late in the action following a kill from first year Michael Shelley (San Francisco, Calif.) and an ENC error but the Lions answered with five straight points to regain a 19-18 lead en route to the 25-23 win.
  • Eastern Nazarene locked up its third sweep of the year with a 25-21 decision in the third despite Emmanuel hitting .455 (12-2-22) as a team in the frame.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (Match 1 vs. ENC)

  • Shelley paced the visitors with a match-high 15 kills while Jyles Amirault (Andover, Mass.) finished with nine kills and 10 digs. Senior setter Roman Fabrizio (Salem, N.H.) recorded 32 assists.
  • Alejandro Garcia Fernandez (San Juan, P.R.) racked up a team-high 13 kills while adding six digs, and four service aces while Delfy Soler (Lawrence, Mass.) tallied nine kills, seven digs, and three aces.
  • Nathan Jacques (Casselberry, Fla.) notched 27 assists, four digs, and three service aces.
  • Emmanuel out-performed the Lions hitting .247 as a squad compared to a .176 clip from the hosts in the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Match 2 vs. SC)

  • In the first set, with the score knotted up at 9-9, Jaret Anderson (Largo, Fla.) sided out with a kill and followed up with two aces to give the Pride a three-point edge. An ace by Mulvaney would push the lead to 20-12 and Weislo would bury the Pride's 12th kill of the set for the 25-15 win to wrap up a frame where Springfield hit .500 as a team.
  • Anderson began the second set with five-consecutive aces, and after Emmanuel came back to even it up at 11, Anderson took over with a scoring run that featued eight aces as Springfield's cushion ballooned to 22-11.   Weislo again put the exclamation on the set with a kill for the 25-14 triumph as Springfield only took 12 swings in the stanza. 
  • Even at 3-3 in the third, Carter Durivage (East Greenbush, N.Y.) ripped a kill and then went back to the end line where he recorded a trio of aces to help the Pride surge ahead, 10-3.  Springfield would cruise to a 25-14 win, as Durivage accounted for Springfield's 13th kill of the stanza, to complete the sweep

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (Match 2 – SC)

  • Louis DaSilva enjoyed a standout performance for EC with six kills on six swings for a 1.000 hitting percentage.
  • Fabrizio had 13 assists and a team-best two aces.
  • First year libero Nick Sciabica (Floral Park, N.Y.) recorded a match-high of five digs.
  • Anderson put together an incredible serving performance as he produced 15 aces in the win to go along with eight kills on 14 errorless swings. 
  • The 15 aces proved to be the highest total by an individual in all of college men's volleyball this season and the third-most by a student-athlete in Division III history in a three-set match. 
  • Thanks to Anderson's efforts, the Pride totaled a program-record 25 aces as a team, besting the previous record of 18 that was established against Baruch in 2018. 
  • Springfield hit .455 in the victory, with  Dylan Mulvaney (Reston, Va.) notching 18 assists and Noah Weislo (Orchard Park, N.Y.) turning in six kills
  • Springfield is currently ranked No. 5 in the most-recent AVCA Coaches National Poll.

UP NEXT

  • The Saints return home for back-to-back matches this week playing host to Nichols College on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:00 PM followed by a 7:00 PM contest against Emerson College in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action on Thursday, March 2.

*Some release content provided by the Eastern Nazarene and Springfield College Athletic Communication offices