NEWTON, Mass. (2/14/14) – The Lasell College men's volleyball team registered a 3-0 victory over the visiting Saints of Emmanuel College in Great Northeast Athletic Conference action on Friday evening. Lasell claimed a back-and-forth opening set 25-22, followed by winning the next two sets 25-12 and 25-19. The Lasers improved to 6-2 overall on the season and 1-0 in GNAC play while Emmanuel slipped to 3-3 for the year while dropping to 1-1 in league matches.
Dan Raffol (Natick, Mass.) tallied 14 kills for Lasell and Ryan Jackson (Massilon, Ohio) put down 12 kills while notching eight digs as the Lasers recorded one of the best hitting performances in program history, recording 42 kills on 74 attacks with only eight attacking errors. Andrew Glenn (Westport, Conn.) directed the Lasers prolific hitting performance with 37 assists and Abdulreham Khan (Karachi, Pakistan) finished with three solo blocks and four kills for Lasell.
Ashanti Jackson (Sacramento, Calif.) notched a team-high eight kills for Emmanuel and Wyatt Cooper (Ridgefield, Conn.) added five kills in the match for the Saints. Sean Baxley (Saint James, N.Y.) handed out 21 assists and Ernie Gurule (Los Angeles, Calif.) posted a team-high six digs for Emmanuel.
Emmanuel won the first three points of the opening set before Lasell recovered; tying the set at 3-3 and the back-and-forth affair was never further apart than two points until the host Lasers claimed the final point of the set to open with a 25-22 win.
The Lasers jumped out to an early lead in the second set, leading 5-1 and never looking back as they cruised to a 25-12 victory in the second set. The Lasers opened up a 5-1 lead in the third set as well and while Emmanuel remained within striking distance the Lasers never let the Saints within three points en-route to a 25-19 victory in the final set.
Emmanuel will face-off with pre-season favorite Rivier University on February 19th at 8:00 p.m. while the Lasers will host Johnson and Wales University at 7:00 p.m. on February 21st.