VOLLEYBALL CRUISES TO 5TH-STRAIGHT SWEEP
March 29, 2012
NEWTON, Mass. - The Emmanuel Men's Volleyball Team cruised to its fifth-straight sweep, with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-14). Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win over Mount Ida College on Thursday night. The Emmanuel holds the second spot in the conference standings improving to 12-9 with a 10-2 league record. Mount Ida drops their seventh league loss and their 12th-straight overall, falling to 1-17 and 0-7 in GNAC action.
Mount Ida hung with the Saints in game one, but constant errors down the stretch handed them the 1-0 opening loss by a score of 25-16. Game two and three were dominated by Emmanuel with the Saints wining 26-16 in the second set and 25-14 in the last to complete the sweep.
The Saints were led by junior setter Nick Updike, who hit 1.000 for the match, recording seven kills and converting on every attempt to go along with 12 assists and 4 blocks. Freshman hitter Austin Cockerill (Darien, Conn.) chipped in six kills, while freshman Sean Baxley (Saint James, N.Y.) added nine assists. Senior captain Michael Mottola (Quincy, Mass.) led the Saints' defense with a match-high 7 digs, to go along with his 4 kills.
For the hosts, junior hitter Spencer Hastings (Orlando, Fla.) led the way, recording a game-high 11 kills. Along with Hastings, Mount Ida was led by senior hitter McCoy Arnoux (Brockton, Mass.) with eight kills on 14 attempts with only two errors and one block assist. Sophomore Nick Melillo (North Haven, Conn.) chipped in two kills. Senior setter Franklin McCaffrey (East Greenwich, R.I.) dished out 20 assists with junior Ricky Oliveira (New Bedford, Mass.) adding five digs respectively.
Mount Ida will travel to Albertus Magnus College Saturday afternoon for a GNAC tri-match with the Falcons and visiting league number one seed Rivier College with game one time slated for 1:00 p.m. Emmanuel will take the weekend off, but will be back in action next week with back-to-back home matches on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, taking on Wentworth Institute of Technology and Albertus Magnus College, respectively.
- Courtesy of Mount Ida College Sports Information