MEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM FINISHES 2nd AT INAUGURAL GNAC TOURNEY
March 29, 2008
Nashua, NH - The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) held its first-ever men's volleyball tournament on Saturday afternoon. Rivier College hosted the inaugural tournament at the Muldoon Health & Fitness Center Nashua, NH. The top-seeded Raiders defeated the Emmanuel Saints to capture the 2008 GNAC Championship.
The Saints entered the tournament seeded second and faced the 3rd-seeded Wildcats of Johnson & Wales University in their opening match. Emmanuel swept JWU in straight sets, 30-26, 34-32, 30-23. Sophomore captain Michael Townsend (Beaverdam, VA) led the Saints, recording a double-double with 20 kills, 10 digs, and 4 aces. Freshmen outside-hitters Curtis Abram (San Luis Obispo, CA) and Stephen Keeney (Snellville, GA) chipped in with 6 kills apiece in the win. Sophomore setter Taylor Lowe (Malibu, CA) paced the attack with 37 assists, while sophomore Gregg MacDonald (Wilbraham, MA) and senior Sophanna Lout (Allston, MA) tallied 6 digs each.
For Johnson & Wales, Ryan Caines (Kingshill, USVA) played a solid match with a team high 10 kills. Steven Velez (San Antonio, TX) led the defense with 9 digs, while Albert Trevino (San Antonio, TX) dished out 28 assists for the Wildcats.
The other semifinal match pitted \#1 Rivier against \#4 Lasell College. The Raiders swpet the Lasers en route to the championship match. Setter Zach Hansen (Shelton, CT) directed the Rivier offense with 31 assists and added 4 digs, 3 aces, and 1 block. Jared Andreozzi (Barrington, RI) played a solid all around match with 15 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks, and 1 ace. Brad Musante (Shelton, CT) was big in the middle with 8 kills on 14 attempts with no errors for a .571 hitting percentage and also tallied a team high 5 blocks. Andy Cass (Wakefield, RI) led the Laser attack with 7 kills while Tyler Hammond (Hadley, MA) led the Lasers on defense with 10 digs.
Rivier, who didn't drop a set all day, went on to defeat the Saints for the tournament title. The Raiders defense tallied 35 digs and 12 blocks, stifling the Saints' attack. Leading the way for the Raiders on defense with 8 blocks was Scott Wright (Salem, NH), who also tallied a team high 12 kills on 22 attempts with only 1 error for a .500 hitting percentage. Chris Deluca (E. Moriches, NY) scooped up a team-high 8 digs and added 2 blocks. Matt Ferreira (Lincoln, RI) and Andreozzi both had 9 kills, while Hansen tallied 32 assists along with 4 blocks.
For the Saints, Townsend was solid again with great all around play. He notched 12 kills and 9 digs in the effort. Abram slammed down 9 kills and added 6 digs for the Saints. MacDonald paced the Saints on defense with 8 digs and controlled much of the passing on serve receive with 38 pass attempts. Both Townsend and MacDonald were named to the All-Tournament Team for the Saints.
TOURNAMENT GAME SUMMARIES:
Preliminary Round
\#4 Lasell College 3 (30 30 30)
\#5 Mount Ida College 0 (23 16 28)
Semifinal 1
\#1 Rivier College 3 (30 30 30)
\#4 Lasell College 0 (19 19 21)
Semifinal 2
\#2 Emmanuel College 3 (30 34 30)
\#3 Johnson & Wales 0 (26 32 23)
Championship
\#1 Rivier College 3 (30 30 30)
\#2 Emmanuel College 0 (20 25 14)
All-Tournament Team
MVP - Zach Hansen (Rivier), Scott Wright (Rivier), Jared Andreozzi (Rivier), Michael Townsend (Emmanuel), Gregg MacDonald (Emmanuel), Albert Trevino (Johnson & Wales), Dustin Foster (Lasell)