SALADRIGAS, SAINTS CRUISE TO GNAC WIN OVER ALBERTUS

BOSTON, Mass. - Freshman Andres Saladrigas (Miami, Fla.) racked up 30 assists in a 3-0 (27-25, 25-18, 25-9) Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win for the Emmanuel College men's volleyball team over Albertus Magnus College on Tuesday evening.

The win lifts Emmanuel's record to 15-9 (5-5 GNAC), while the loss drops the Falcons to 5-10 and 0-8 in the GNAC.

The Saints kept seniors Barrett Wingard (York, Pa.), Garrett McGarry (Chicago, Ill.), Julian Hess (Santa Monica, Calif.), and junior Jorge Rojas (San Juan, Puerto Rico) on the bench for the entire first set and found themselves in a back-and-forth battle. 

Albertus Magnus scored the first four points of the match before freshman Erik English (Simi Valley, Calif.) earned two kills in a row to cut the lead in half. The teams then traded points, and Albertus hung on to a 10-8 lead, until EC took advantage of a series of attack errors and jumped out to a 13-10 lead, forcing an AMC timeout.

After a service error by senior Michael Felix (Mission Hills, Calif.) tied the match at 17, the Falcons used three more EC attack errors to open up a 20-17 lead, and force coach Bori May to use a timeout. From there, the teams swapped points back-and-forth until English used a kill and service ace to tie the set at 24-24.

A bad set by freshman Jeremy Ortiz (Bridgeport, Conn.) and a kill by senior Ben Spilka (Redding, Conn.) brought the score to 25-25, and then two consecutive kills by senior Drew Jordan (Braintree, Mass.) powered the Saints to a 27-25 win in the opening set.

The Falcons opened the second set with another strong run, leading 6-1 and 12-7, but the Saints answered with five straight points to tie things up at 12, and then, when the score was knotted at 18, scored seven points in a row to end the set. 

At 18-18, freshman Kevin Orsley (San Jose, Calif.) picked up a kill to give the Saints the lead, and then Wingard took over, hammering four straight service aces to extend the lead to 23-18. A kill by Hess and an attack error by senior Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) closed out the set in favor of the hosts.

The final set was dominated by Emmanuel, as the home team led 13-3 midway through the frame. After a brief Albertus run, the Saints scored ten of the last 11 points and ended the match on Wingard's sixth kill of the night.

English finished with 11 kills, five aces, and seven digs in the win. Hess and Wingard posted hitting percentages of .571 and .455, respectively, in limited action.

For the visitors, Tharau earned nine kills, Ortiz dished out 18 assists, and Spilka gathered 11 digs in the losing effort.

The Saints are back at it on Thursday night when the Endicott Gulls come to town for a 7 p.m. match at the Emmanuel College Gymnasium.