CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A balanced offensive attack from the Endicott men's volleyball team took down New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opponent Lesley on Wednesday evening 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-21) as the Gulls improved to 8-1 against the league heading into their marquee matchup with conference foe Southern Vermont.
The Gulls (13-8, 8-1) will take on the Mountaineers (10-7, 6-2) on Thursday, March 27th at 7:00 pm at home in MacDonald Gymnasium. It will be the first home match for Endicott since their invitational on March 7th-8th. With the loss, Lesley remained winless on the season at 0-17 (0-10 NECC).
Endicott rolled out their starters in the opening set and used an efficient .429 hitting percentage to win the opening set 25-13. The Gulls converted 28 attempts into 16 kills with just four errors. In the set, senior middle Travis Netherton (Waukegan, Ill.) had five errorless swings with four kills. Sophomore setter Tyler Bacon (Cypress, Calif.) totaled 13 assists in the first set as he also distributed to seniors Mike Coniglione (Glenville, N.Y.) and reigning NECC and ECAC Player of the Week Brennan Lowe (Malibu, Calif.) as well as sophomore outside John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) who all registered a kill. Defensively, senior libero Aaron Jessee (Okinawa, Japan) had four digs in the first set win.
In the second and third sets, the Gulls turned to their depth to rattle off 25-17 and 25-21 set wins to complete the 3-0 sweep. Junior outside Billy Mullen (Weymouth, Mass.) tied his career-best with seven kills on a .308 hitting percentage and senior right side Brandon Chadwick (Chelmsford, Mass.) matched Mullen with seven kills of his own. Chadwick, as well as sophomore middle Daniel Toth (Vernon, N.J.), registered both a solo and assisted block in the win.
Sophomore setter Cameron Little (San Diego, Calif.) came on in relief of Bacon and averaged over 10 assists per set and set a season-high with 21 assists against the Lynx. Little set freshman middle Ryan Sutherland (Fairport, N.Y.) for four kills and both Toth and freshman outside Tyler Willgoos (Newington, Conn.) for two kills apiece.
Defensively, Little matched Jessee with a team-high four digs while junior defensive specialists Kristian Catalan (Sudbury, Mass.) and Stewart Allendorph (Delmar, N.Y.) contributed with three digs apiece. On the service line, Endicott also did some damage with Toth serving up three aces and Josh Anderson (La Canada, Calif.) and Chandler Tayek (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) registering two each.
