Posted: Jan 24, 2012
BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott men’s volleyball hosted Harvard in their 2012 season opener at MacDonald Gymnasium on Tuesday evening, but lost to the visiting Crimson 3-1 (25-21, 25-17, 28-30, 25-17) to fall to 0-1. Tonight’s match was the ninth meeting between these two programs, dating back to the 2000 season, with Harvard holding a 7-2 advantage.
Harvard (1-0) used double-digit kill efforts by three players and overall team hitting percentage of .330 to secure their first win of the season. Senior outside hitter and captain Matt Jones (La Jolla, Calif.) struck a match-high 17 kills and matched Gulls libero Andrew Slocum (Burnt Hills, N.Y.) with a game-best 10 digs to pace the Crimson.
The visiting Crimson also got strong performances sophomore outside Nick Madden (San Diego, Calif.) and freshman middle Caleb Zimmick (Middleton, Wis.) who added 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Zimmick was efficient with just one error on 16 attempts for a .750 hitting percentage. Harvard’s junior setter Rob Lothman (Glendale, Mo.) dished out 37 assists and junior Derek Jansma (Lancaster, N.Y.) added 16 more in two sets of play.
For the Gulls, senior outside hitter Jeremy Siden (Natick, Mass.) and sophomore right side Josh Anderson (La Canada, Calif.) tied for a team-high 11 kills in the loss while sophomore middle Lance Pepper (Torrington, Conn.), who was integral in Endicott’s 30-28 third set victory, registered five kills on seven errorless attempts.
Endicott’s setting duo of sophomore Carter Roche (Clifton, Park, N.J.) and senior Jeremy Schlosser (Emmaus, Pa.) combined for 36 assists to nine different Gulls attackers.
Both teams were effective in the blocking game, especially Harvard who saw eight of their nine participants record a block. Zimmick led all players with five assisted blocks for the Crimson while Endicott’s senior middle blocker Joshua Bruno (Andover, Mass.) had four block assists.
The first set was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams with 15 ties. Late in the match, with the Blue and Green up 17-16 following a kill by freshman Thomas Stoeckinger (Malibu, Calif.), Harvard rallied for three straight points to take control of the set. The Gulls would pull to within one at 19-18 but Jones account for three of Harvard’s six final points to give the Crimson a 25-21 first set victory.
In the second, Harvard raced out to a 4-0 lead and led by as many as seven points at 19-12 before cruising to a 25-17 win. The Crimson once again rallied at the end of the set by taking five of the final six points, including the set-clinching kill by sophomore Will Chambers (Honolulu, Hawaii).
Down 2-0 in the match and facing match point at 24-22 in the third set, Endicott stormed back with three points in-a-row, all on Crimson hitting errors, to take the 25-24 lead. In the win-by-two scenario, Endicott and Harvard exchanged points until with the score knotted at 28, the Gulls used a kill by Anderson and an ace by Pepper to grind out the set win 30-28.
In the early part of the fourth set, both teams exchanged the lead until Harvard ran off eight of nine points to take a commanding 16-10 lead. The Crimson held on to win 25-17, winning the match 3-1 overall.
Both teams will be in action on Friday, January 27th as Endicott travels to Springfield College to take on the \#2 ranked Pride starting at 7:00 pm. Harvard visits Rivier for a 7:00 pm match.
