MEN’S VOLLEYBALL PREVAILS OVER WENTWORTH, 3-1

BOSTON, Mass. – Freshman outside hitter Barrett Wingard (Dallastown, Pa.) registered a game-high 21 kills, while hitting .545 from the floor to lead the Emmanuel College men's volleyball team past Wentworth Institute of Technology, 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-17), Tuesday evening at the Jean Yawkey Center. With the victory, the Saints improve to 5-9 overall and 3-1 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action while the Leopards fall to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in the GNAC.

In the opening set, Wentworth jumped out to an early 7-5 advantage, before the Saints would rally to tie the score at 9-9. An ace by freshman Julian Hess (Santa Monica, Calif.) and a setting error on Wentworth would put the Saints up 11-9. Wentworth would fight to get back in the set, and eventually took a 16-13 lead off of an ace and kill by sophomore Rami Akouri (Fall River, Mass.). Both teams would trade points to push the score to 21-18 in favor of Wentworth. Emmanuel came back to within a point, however a kill by Brian Mann (East Freetown, Mass.) lead to a 25-23 first set victory for Wentworth.   

The second set saw both sides trade the first four points before an ace by Wingard put the Saints up 6-5. The Saints extended the lead to 10-6 after an Ashanti Jackson (Sacramento, Calif.) kill followed by a Wentworth error. A huge kill by Nick Updike and a Wentworth error pushed the Emmanuel lead  to 15-9. The lead was pushed to 23-17 as both sides exchanged points. An ace by Brett Pettis (Haverhill, Mass.) and an Updike kill finished off the set for the Saints with a 25-17 victory.

In the third set, Emmanuel was able to jump out to an early 4-0 advantage. The two sides would exchange points pushing the score to 9-5 in favor of Emmanuel. A pair of kills from Updike and sophomore Ryan Kessler (Santa Clarita, Calif.) would extend the Saints lead to 12-6. A push by Wentworth would close the gap to 13-10. Emmanuel would than string off three points, capped by a Wingard kill to extend the league to 16-10. The Saints continued the strong play in the set, and pushed the lead to 20-11. The Leopards would come within 7, with the score at 21-14, but that would be as close as Wentworth got in the set. Kessler's final kill pushed the saints to a 25-16 victory in the set.  

In the final set, Emmanuel again would jump out to an early advantage, as the hosts got out to a 5-1 start. Wentworth and Emmanuel would go back and forth to put the score at 10-6.A Jackson kill put the lead at 12-9. However, Wentworth would not go away, as they came back within one point with to put the score at 12-11. Emmanuel held off the Leopards, and extended the lead to 17-13 off of a Wentworth error. A pair of aces from Updike would end the Wentworth comeback, as the Saint's lead was pushed to 21-16. The Saints would go on to finish the game with three consecutive points to cruise to the 25-17 victory in the set, and the 3-1 match victory over Wentworth.

Kessler and Jackson each finished the match with 12 kills for EC while Updike ran the offense with a match-high 46 assists.

Mann led the way for the Leopards with 12 kills and a .550 hitting percentage.

The Saints will return to action on Thursday evening when they host Division I Harvard University at 7:00 PM. The Leopards are idle until March 15 when they travel to Providence, R.I. for the Wildcat Invitational hosted by Johnson & Wales University.