Boston, MA - #6 Rivier College (8-1 GNAC; 19-5 overall) was
defeated by Emmanuel College 3-1 in a Great Northeast Athletic
Conference (GNAC) battle on Tuesday night. In the eight year
history between these two programs, this was Emmanuel's first-ever
win over Rivier. The Raiders had won 17 straight matches
over the Saints before dropping the 3-1 decision on Tuesday
night. Emmanuel (16-7) and Rivier (19-5) are now tied for
1st place in the conference standings with one GNAC loss
apiece.
In the first set both teams battled to a 16-16 tie; Rivier then
committed 2 unforced errors and Emmanuel served an ace to give
the home team a lead that would eventually balloon to 8 points for
a 30-22 win.
Rivier created a 15-11 lead in set 2 only to find themselves
needing to rally to win 30-28.
The Saints pulled out to a 7-5 lead early on in the third set,
before back-to-back kills by Rivier tied it at 7 apiece.
The Saints opened up a 4 point lead at 16-12 and never looked
back for a 30-24 win.
Much like the third set, the fourth featured several lead
changes in the early going before Emmanuel went up
13-11. Rivier was able to keep it close at
24-21 but a Raider ball handling error, followed by a
hitting error, brought the score to 26-21. Two more unforced
errors by Riv put the spread at 28-22 and the set out of reach at
30-23.
Junior Jared Andreozzi scored 13 kills and
became just the 6th Raider in program history to reach 1,000 kills
in a career. Taylor Lindner and
Matt Ferreira had 13 and 11 kills
respectively while Ferreira put back a team high 4 blocks.
Senior Zach Hansen dished out 45 assists and
senior Kyle O'Neill had a team high 12 digs off
the bench.
#6 Rivier College
1 22 30
24 23
Emmanuel College
3 30 28
30 30
Rivier will continue GNAC play at Emerson College on Thursday
3/4 at 7pm.
