MEN'S VOLLEYBALL COMPETES AT BARUCH INVITATIONAL
Feb. 27, 2012
NEW YORK, N.Y. - The past weekend, the Emmanuel College men's volleyball team travelled to New York, N.Y. to compete at the Baruch College Invitational, a tournament featuring six top tier Division III schools including five nationally ranked institutions in the latest AVCA poll. The Saints started the weekend off strong with an impressive 3-1 victory over \#7 Stevens Tech but would drop its next three matches against Elmira, \#5 MIT and \#12 Baruch to post a 1-3 record over the weekend. Emmanuel, who was ranked 15th in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll, now stands at 5-7 overall on the season and 4-1 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action.
Against the \#7 Ducks, Emmanuel came out sluggish and dropped the first set, 15-25 before recovering to win the next three sets (25-20, 25-21, 25-23) to notch the program's first victory over a ranked opponent on the season. Freshman outside hitter Ashanti Jackson (Sacramento, Calif.) led the way with an impressive 23 kill outing while also getting down for a team-high seven digs in the win. Freshman outside hitter Zach Whitermore (Whitehall, Pa.) chipped in with 10 kills while senior middle hitter Tom McCaffrey (Massapequa, N.Y.) added seven kills and seven combined blocks in the victory. Junior setter Nick Updike ran the offensive show dishing out 41 assists in the match. During the win, Updike notched his 2,000th career assist to become just the third player in the program's history to reach the career milestone.
Emmanuel was unable to complete the day-one sweep as the Saints fell later in the evening to Elmira College, 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-22). Jackson and Whitermore were both productive in the defeat notching nine and eight kills each, respectively while Updike sent out 21 assists. Junior outside hitter Alex McKeen (Stoughton, Mass.) paced the defensive front with a team-high seven digs.
Day two of the Invitational proved to be a difficult challenge as the Saints fell to a pair of nationally ranked institutions in #5 MIT and #12 Baruch.
In the opening match of the day against the Engineers, the Saints dropped the first set 25-17 before rebounding to even that match at 1-1 with a 25-23 win in the second frame. MIT recovered with a convincing 25-18 win in the third set to give them a 2-1 lead in the match before they were able to prevail in a nail-biting fourth set that went in their favor, 32-30. Jackson ended with a team-high 14 kills and nine digs. Whitermore added nine kills, 10 digs and three aces while McCaffrey scored eight kills and four total blocks in the defeat.
Against the tournament hosts, the Saints gave Baruch as close a match as one could in a three-setter but unfortunately dropped each frame by the minimum two point margin (26-24, 25-23, 26-24) for the 3-0 setback. Updike enjoyed a solid all-around match, dishing out 21 assists to go along with seven kills and a team-high eight digs. Freshman opposite Austin Cockerill (Darien, Conn.) also collected seven kills while junior middle hitter Zachary Caron (Hope, R.I.) chipped in with six kills for EC.
The Saints will return to action on Tuesday, February 29 when they host \#9 Rivier College at 8:00 pm in an important mid-season GNAC matchup that could have some playoff implications. The two squads met earlier this season as the \#9 Raiders were able to come away with a 3-1 win on February 17 but Emmanuel will look to even the score on their home court. Watch the action live online at http://emmanuel.nmtvsports.com/ .