No. 12 Lasers Down Emerson in Straight Sets

No. 12 Lasers Down Emerson in Straight Sets
NEWTON, Mass. (2/16/17) – The Lasell men's volleyball team took out the visiting Lions of Emerson College, 3-0, in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action Thursday evening inside the Athletic Center. By set scores of 25-8, 25-17, and 25-23, the No. 12 Lasers advance to 15-1 overall and 2-0 in the GNAC, while Emerson drops to 4-3 and loses their first conference game at 0-1.

Senior Tristan Davis (Rochester, N.Y.) hit .500% on the night, converting on 10-of-16 attack attempts. The recently named GNAC/AVCA Player of the Week contributed 11 points overall with an additional service ace as the long Laser to reach double digits in the kills column. Three Lasers recorded five kills in Janci Soto (Lawrence, Mass.), Saunoa Afoa (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Patrick MacDonald (Floral Park, N.Y.), with MacDonald jumping up for a game-best three blocks.

Defensive specialist Alex Moule (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) registered 10 digs in the winning effort, while Andy Henriquez (Lawrence, Mass.) served up 28 assists with six digs.

While no Lion crossed the single-digit marker in kills, three different players swung into three apiece in Diego Garcia (Honolulu, Hawaii), Win Kittivatcharapong (Bangkok, Thailand) and Stig Regan (Kailua, Hawaii). Regan led the attack on a .385%, while setter Nick Rusk (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) had 21 helpers.

The Lasers cruised past the visitors on a .800% and .360% showing in the opening set, before Emerson produced offensively to give the hosts trouble in the third. A kill by Mark Piorkowski (Montclair, N.J.) gave the Lions an early 5-2 lead, before Macdonald and Scott Sterenberg (Oceanside, N.Y.) pulled the Lasers back in to tie the set 5-5. Neither team secured an advantage that stretched past two points, until an attack error by Kittivatcharapong gave Lasell a 13-10 lead. Lasell never let go of the reins for the set's remainder, as a final kill by Henriquez sealed the home match victory.

Lasell heads to Springfield, Mass. to take on the No. 1 Pride and Wells College in a big regional matchup on Saturday, February 18 at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. The Lions also return to action on Saturday to host Mt. St. Vincent at Emmanuel College at 5:00 p.m.