Lasell College collected their second win of the season over Johnson & Wales University tonight with Dan Rogers (Belchertown, Mass.) leading the way collecting 10 kills, 5 digs, and 3 blocks . The Lasers improve to 6-4 overall and 3-2 in the GNAC after the victory, while the Wildcats drop to 4-5 and 3-4 in the conference.
Dan Rogers was the headliner from the start of the match, slamming down his first kill in the opening play of the game. The Lasers as a whole set the tone early in the first set, hitting .306 as a team, while the Wildcats struggled, just over the breaking point with a .054 clip. Johnson & Wales was led by the duo of Petar Yanakiev (Varna, Bulgaria) and Sean Lauro (West Roxbury, Mass.), each putting down four kills in the set, but the Lasers were too strong, and put away a 30-24 game one.
Brendan McGourn (Southington, Conn.) served up a 7-0 run opening the second stanza, digging JWU into an inescapable hole. The Lasers then stretch out to a 22-5 lead, with McGourn attacking on the second ball for three kills, and four big blocks, set by Dave Rogers (Belchertown, Mass.) and Dan Rogers. The Wildcats attempted to put together a late run, but a negative hitting percentage toppled them and the Lasers' momentum carried them to a 30-16 thrashing.
In the concluding set, Lauro did his part to keep the Wildcats alive with an eight kill performance. The teams played neck-in-neck over the first ten points, however, after a notable save by McGourn off a stray pass resulted in Lasell taking over the edge, the Lasers grabbed onto the control of the game and proceeded to go up, 20-11.
Johnson & Wales put together two belatedly runs, benefitting from Lasell errors, and utilizing Yanakiev and Lauro's back row attacks to tie the game at 27-27. The Wildcats then pulled ahead by one off of a bad Laser set. The Lasers tied the game three more times, before the Wildcats went ahead for game point at 31-30, after a net violation on the hosts. Unfortunately for the visitors, Lasell's Dustin Foster (Ashford, Conn.) blasted a right side line attack for the kill, and served the final two points of the match, giving the Lasers a 33-31 win, and the match victory.
The Lasers' defended JWU's attack well, limiting them to a .00 attack percentage for the game. Andy Cass (Wakefield, RI) and Joe Lipski (Burlington, Conn.) were the top performers defensively, with 7 and 6 digs correspondingly. McGourn , Dan Rogers, and Matt Roberts (Agawam, Mass.) each picked up 5 additional digs.
McGourn culminated with 32 assists and five kills, hitting a .444 clip. Foster put down four kills and denied three blocks, and Cass added five kills to his team-high digs.
Lauro ended with a game-best 14 kills, while Yanakiev added 7 kills, 13 digs, and two aces. Kory Helgensen (Bensalem, Penn.) put up 23 assisted sets for the visitors, and libero Steven Velez (San Antonio, TX) came up with 11 digs over the course of the contest.
Lasell plays next in a tri-match at Elms College with Wentworth Institute of Technology and the hosting Blazers. The Lasers play at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.