BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott men's volleyball team defended their home court with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-19) win over Wentworth in their home opener Thursday night to improve to 2-3 on the young season, thanks in part to a pair of nine-kill performances by right side hitters Matt Devendorf (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Josh Anderson (La Canada, Calif.).
Wentworth dropped to 4-2 on the season as they saw their three-match win-streak snapped. The Leopards were paced by kill-leader, junior Ross Burdett (Needham, Mass.) who struck a match-high 15 kills on a .367 hitting percentage.
Devendorf and Anderson, along with strong offensive efforts from the outside by Brennan Lowe (Malibu, Calif.) and John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.), led a group of six Endicott players who recorded kills. Setters Carter Roche (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and Tyler Bacon (Cypress, Calif.) total 20 and 16 assists, respectively, in Endicott's two-setter system.
Defensively, the Gulls saw Lowe and junior Travis Netherton (Waukegan, Ill.) battle to keep points alive with seven kills each. Netherton did his part defensively at the net as well with a solo block and two assists stops. Junior middle Mike Coniglione (Glenville, N.Y.) led the Blue and Green with four assisted blocks as Endicott totaled 9.5 total blocks as a team. Endicott's liberos Aaron Jessee (Okinawa, Japan) and Kristian Catalan (Sudbury, Mass.) contributed with four digs apiece.
Wentworth also got a double-digit kill performance from sophomore outside Rami Akouri (Fall River, Mass.) who had 10 kills with five digs. Senior setter Tyler Moriarty (Wilbraham, Mass.) dished out 35 assists to seven different Wentworth attackers. Moriarty also factored in defensively with a match-high 14 digs as did junior Mike Buonincontra (Shelton, Conn.) who added nine digs of his own.
Endicott improved to 10-4 all-time in home openers and 21-4 versus Wentworth since their first meeting back in January of 2000. The Gulls have won 21 straight over the Leopards. This was the first meeting between two teams since the ECAC North Semifinals on April 9th, 2011, a match Endicott won 3-0 at home.
The Gulls move on to the first match of their NECC schedule as they travel to Chicopee to face Elms in a rematch of last year's conference championship. Endicott and Elms meet on Saturday, February 2nd at 7:00 pm. Wentworth travels to Daniel Webster on Wednesday, February 6th for a 7:00 pm start with the Eagles.
