Nashua, NH - For the second consecutive season, top seeded
Rivier College Men's Volleyball beat Emmanuel College 3-0 to claim
the 2009 GNAC Championship. It was a hard fought battle as
Emmanuel gave it everything they had to try and slow the Raiders
down, but Rivier, the #3 ranked team in Division III volleyball,
proved again why they are favored to hold the top spot in next
weekend's NECVA Championship.
The start of game one was very much a back and forth battle as
the score remained close. Rivier (31-1 overall; 12-0 GNAC)
finally broke off a run in the middle of the match with some strong
blocking and hitting from senior middle hitter Scott
Wright to push Rivier's lead to 5 at 23-18. Rivier
extended the lead even more before Emmanuel started on a short run
of their own, however it proved to be too late as Rivier was able
to hold off the Saints for the 30-26 victory.
Game 2 saw Rivier jump out quickly as some strong serving by
freshman Drew Corwin and sophomore Austin
Soucy extended Rivier's lead to 14-7. Rivier led by
as many as 11 in the set, but some late strong attacks by
Emmanuel's Curtis Abram (San Luis Obispo, CA), Michael Townsend
(Beaverdam, VA) and Keoni Rabaino (Tucson, AZ) chipped away at
Rivier's lead before they eventually put the game away on an Austin
Soucy attack with the score 30-25.
Emmanuel jumped out to a short lead 4-2 in set 3 before Rivier
came back to tie the game at 6-6. From there it was strong
net play by middle hitter's Wright and Matt Ferreira, who combined
for 8 blocks in the match, as well as strong defense by libero
Kyle O'Neill (Long Beach, NY) and defensive
specialist Chris Convertito (Trumbull, CT) that
helped to seal the game and the match for Rivier. Ferreira
ended the match with a kill from the middle with a score of 30-23.
Setter Zach Hansen (Shelton, CT) paced the
Raider attack with 39 assists and also chipped in with 1 service
ace and 6 digs. Outside hitter Jared
Andreozzi(Barrington, RI) led the Raiders in kills with
11, while fellow classmate Austin Soucy (Toland,
CT) added 10 kills of his own along with 9 digs.
Middle hitter Matt Ferreira (Lincoln, RI) also
tallied 10 kills with Scott Wright (Salem, NH)
chipping in with 9 kills and 5 block.
The Saints were led by Townsend's 13 kills and 3 blocks while
setter Taylor Lowe (Malibu, CA) dished out 27 assists. Libero
Jacob DeLuise (Wakefield, RI) picked up 9 digs and middle hitter
Alex Petty (Wayland, MA) put back 3 blocks.
Both teams have qualified for next weekend's NECVA Championship
Tournament, which invites the top 16 teams from the 5 NECVA
conference divisions. The Tournament will start Friday April
3, 2009 at MIT in Boston, MA.
#1 Rivier
College
3 30 30
30
#2 Emmanuel College
0 26 25 23
2009 GNAC Men's
Volleyball All Tournament Team:
Joseph Lipski - Lasell College
Sean Lauro - Johnson & Wales University
Curtis Abram - Emmanuel College
Taylor Lowe - Emmanuel College
Austin Soucy - Rivier College
Zach Hansen - Rivier College
Tournament MVP: Scott Wright - Rivier
College
