MIT SWINGS PAST SAINTS, 3-1

BOSTON, Mass. – The MIT Men's Volleyball team used a balanced offensive attack to swing past Emmanuel College, 3-1 (25-20, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20), Tuesday evening at the Jean Yawkey Center Gymnasium. With the win, the Engineers improve to 15-4 on the year while the loss drops the Saints to 7-7 overall. MIT, who received three votes in the most recent AVCA Division III Men's Volleyball poll, has now won four straight matches.  

The Engineers set the tone in the opening set, hitting .615 as a team en route to the 25-20 win. MIT put home 16 kills on 26 attempts with no hitting errors. Junior outside hitter Martin Krasuski (Aurora, Ill.) led the way with five kills on seven swings while freshman outside hitter Jacob Gasparich (New Lenox, Ill.) contributed four kills on seven attempts. Emmanuel received seven kills in the set by senior outside hitter Barrett Wingard (York, Pa.).

In set two, MIT came back down to earth hitting .200 as a team but it was enough to power the visitors to a 25-19 win. The Engineers took advantage of six Emmanuel service errors, three hitting errors, two receiving errors and one ball handling error to account for almost half of their points in the action.

Emmanuel made a match out of it with a strong third set, securing a 26-24 win to force more volleyball. Wingard enjoyed another strong set with six kills while senior middle hitter Julian Hess (Venice, Calif.) got more involved in the action with six kills on seven swings. Junior setter Jorge Rojas (San Juan, Puerto Rico) distributed 18 helpers in the frame to help Emmanuel pull within a set at 2-1.

MIT never trailed in the final set of action en route to the 3-1 victory in the match. Freshman middle hitter Skyler Kaufman (Needham, Mass.) posted six kills on nine swings in the last set while sophomore middle Andrew Hall (Lynnfield, Mass.) added five kills on eight attempts.

Kaufman finished with a team-high 13 kills while Krasuski recorded 12 in the win. Reilly and Hall each added 10 kills while freshman setter Yize Dong (Moraga, Calif.) dished out 48 assists for the Engineers. Senior libero Brendan Chang (Laytonsville, Md.) recorded a match-high 16 digs to pace the MIT defense.

For the Saints, Wingard ended with a match-high 19 kills and 10 digs while Hess chipped in with 13 kills. Rookie outside hitter Erik English (Simi Valley, Calif.) posted 12 kills and 10 digs in the loss while McGarry registered 11. Rojas accumulated 53 helpers for a new career-high.

Emmanuel returns to action on Thursday, March 3 when they head down the road to take on Wentworth Institute of Technology at 7:00 PM for a Great Northeast Athletic Conference tilt while the Engineers are back on the court this Saturday, March 5 when they host No. 6 Nazareth College and No. 11 Vassar College beginning at 11:00 AM.