FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Courtesy of Emmanuel & WIT Athletics Communications
In first-round action of the 2015 GNAC Men's Volleyball Tournament on Tuesday night, third-seeded Wentworth Institute of Technology defeated sixth-seeded Emerson College, 3-0, and fourth-seeded Emmanuel College defeated fifth-seeded Johnson & Wales University, 3-0.
Wentworth moves on to face second-seeded Lasell College in the GNAC semifinals, while top-seeded Rivier University gets set to host Emmanuel. Both contests are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night.
#3 WENTWORTH 3, #6 EMERSON 0
BOSTON, Mass. – Freshman Jon Roat (Macedon, N.Y.) and sophomore Jake Reed (Arvada, Colo.) each had a match-high 15 kills, as Wentworth blanked Emerson Tuesday night in Tansey Gymnasium.
With the win the Leopards improve to 22-7 while the Lions wrap up their season at 13-13. Wentworth, which won its first GNAC Tournament match in the four years the Black & Gold has been a member of the league.
Emerson took a 7-6 lead in the early stages of the opening set before the Leopards strung together six unanswered points to take the 12-7 lead. The Lions managed to tie things up at 18-all with a kill from freshman Nick Rusk (Weston, Fla.), however the Leopards finished on a 7-3 run that concluded with Roat earning a kill to give the Black and Gold the 25-21 set win. Roat led the way in the first set with six kills and four digs.
Sophomore Alex Potts (Niverville, N.Y.) began the second set by hitting his first of five kills in the set. Wentworth kept its distance from the Lions, as Potts and Roat led the offensive. Just like the first set, Roat ended things on a kill to take the second set 25-20.
After Emerson went up 5-4 early in the third, Wentworth scored three straight and didn't fall behind afterward. Reed put up a set-high six kills in the third set to carry the Leopards. A 6-1 run late in the set helped separate the Leopards from the Lions, giving Wentworth the 25-17 set win.
Reed hit .429, had a pair of service aces, and two blocks to go along with his 15 mills, while Roat also had two aces. Potts finished with nine kills, hit .438, and served a pair of aces. Sophomore Collin Ritter (Feeding Hills, Mass.) had 47 assists, six digs, and two blocks.
Junior Jackson Wiley (Los Angeles, Calif.) led Emerson with 16 kills while hitting .371.
#4 EMMANUEL 3, JOHNSON & WALES 0
BOSTON, Mass. – On Tuesday night, the battle in Emmanuel's Jean Yawkey Center featured a pair of closely matched teams, who had split during the regular season. The host Saints used a 25-21, 25-22 and 25-22 victory to improve to 11-11 on the season and advance to the GNAC semifinal round this Thursday night. Johnson & Wales dropped to 20-11 on the season with the loss.
The Saints combined to hit .281 as a team, led by junior outside hitter Barrett Wingard (York, Pa.), who slammed down 14 kills in 23 swings with just two errors on the night. Wingard was unstoppable in set two with eight of his 14 kills coming in the second set.
The match opened with the Wildcats jumping out to a 12-9 lead and forcing an Emmanuel timeout, following consecutive Saints' hitting and blocking errors. Out of the timeout, a kill by senior outside hitter Ashanti Jackson (Sacramento, Calif.) and an ace from Garrett McGarry (Chicago, Ill.) tied the set at 12-all. Strong serving from Jackson put EC out in front 18-16 and forced the Wildcats to signal for a timeout. JWU kills fromChris Espinola (Derry, N.H.) and Don Dias (Scituate, R.I.) kept it close for the visitors at 21-19.
A right-side swing from Austin Cockerill (Darien, Conn.) gave Emmanuel a 23-19 advantage, but a pair of JWU kills from Kyle Eva (Charlestown, R.I.) brought the spread to 24-21. Cockerill would end it on another smash for a 25-21 set one final.
Set two was hotly contested in the early going with four ties, before a right-side kill from Wingard gave EC a 10-9 edge. A pair of kills from Wingard put the hosts up 16-13 and forced a Wildcat timeout. The timeout was not enough to silence Wingard, who then rattled off four-straight slams, forcing another JWU timeout with the Wildcats trailing 20-15. An assisted block by Dias and Kanila Chang (Orlando, Fla.) set the score at 23-20 and forced Emmanuel to call a timeout. The Saints held set-point twice before a Jackson kill finished it at 25-22 and gave EC at 2-0 lead in the match.
Jackson found the floor four times in the Saints' first five points of set three to give EC an early 5-2 edge. A huge solo block from Ryan Kennedy (West Barnstable, Mass.) forged a tie at 9-all. With Emmanuel trailing by one, McGarry put one down in the middle to again tie the set at 15. A kill from Jackson and a McGarry ace brought the score to 19-18. Emmanuel's Julian Hess (Santa Monica, Calif.) and JWU's Brendan Baker (Providence, R.I.) traded points and the set was knotted at 22-all. It was a kill from Wingard, who also teamed up with McGarry for a block down the stretch, which forced match-point at 24-22. Johnson & Wales ended it with an attack error and Emmanuel pulled out the 25-22 win and three-set sweep.
The Saints, who played without senior captain Zach Whitermore (Whitehall, Pa.), got a huge match from Wingard. With his seventh double-figure kills' match of the season, Wingard also tallied five digs and three blocks, while hitting .522 on the night.
Jackson finished with nine kills, three digs and three blocks. He will enter Thursday's semifinal match needing just nine kills for 1,000 in his collegiate career. Cockerill chipped in with eight kills, while McGarry and Hess combined for nine assisted blocks. Senior setter Sean Baxley (Saint James, N.Y.) dished out 31 assists in the win for the Saints.
JWU was paced by a near double-double of 13 kills and nine digs from Kennedy. Baker added 12 kills and five digs, while Eva finished with nine kills and four digs. Senior setter J.J. Bessette (Coventry, R.I.) handed out a match-high 41 helpers in the effort for the Wildcats.