BEVERLY, Mass. – On a day in which they celebrated the careers of seniors Stewart Allendorph (Delmar, N.Y.), Kristian Catalan (Sudbury, Mass.), and Billy Mullen (Weymouth, Mass.), the Endicott men's volleyball team also completed an unblemished 12-0 record against NECC opponents this season after sweeping Daniel Webster 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-15) on Saturday afternoon.
Endicott (13-10, 12-0 NECC) saw all three seniors excel in the win over the Eagles including Mullen who registered a career-high 12 digs on 27 swings (.259) with two digs and two block assists. Allendorph finished one dig shy of his personal best with 10 digs and Catalan played all over the court, totaling three kills, three service aces, four digs, and a block assist.
Having already secured the top seed in the NECC Tournament, scheduled for April 10th-11th at Endicott, the Gulls now look ahead to a weekend at the MIT Scramble next Friday and Saturday. Action begins on Friday, April 3rd at 6:00 p.m. against Bard before Saturday's doubleheader with Lehman and the host Engineers.
Daniel Webster dropped to 4-13 (4-7 NECC) on the year and will play their regular season finale at Lesley on Wednesday, April 1st at 8:00 p.m. with hopes of sneaking into the NECC Tournament with the last playoff spot.
Endicott, the nation's 18th-ranked blocking team coming into Saturday's match with an average of 2.2 per set, had 12 team blocks against Daniel Webster attackers. Junior setter Cameron Little (San Diego, Calif.) had a match-high six blocks, including one solo, with junior middle Daniel Toth (Vernon, N.J.) and sophomore middle Ryan Sutherland (Fairport, N.Y.) totaling five block assists each. Junior outside Chandler Tayek (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) also added three block assists to go along with this four kills and three digs.
Along with Mullen's career-high offensive output, Toth and Sutherland each contributed with five kills with junior outside John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) recording four kills. Little distributed 28 assists to an Endicott attack that hit .238 in their final regular season home match. Little also had nine digs defensively to go along with his six blocks.
Daniel Webster senior middle Joel Hendrix (Kane'ohe, Haw.) took a match-high 37 swings and managed to get 13 kills despite a .081 hitting percentage. Hendrix also had four digs but struggled on service receive with five reception errors. Junior Darrien Mason (Farmington, Conn.) and junior Ryan Howdeshell (Fairbanks, Alaska) added five and four kills, respectively, in the loss. Howdeshell, who switched to setter midway through the opening set, finished with 19 assists. Junior libero James Kenney (Coventry, R.I.) had a match-high 11 digs for junior outside Tommy Reyes (Providence, R.I.) led the Eagles with three assisted blocks.
Endicott improved to 18-0 against Daniel Webster all-time with the win and completed back-to-back regular season straight set wins over the Eagles for the first time since the 2012 season.
