CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – After a slow start to the 2015 season, the Endicott men's volleyball team has won four straight matches over conference opponents including Friday evening's 3-0 (25-5, 25-9, 25-16) win over Lesley on the road. The Gulls hit .381 and registered 10 blocks as a team to help move the team's record to 5-6 (4-0 NECC).
The Gulls now look ahead to a home match on Wednesday, February 25th against the 11th-ranked MIT Engineers (10-2, 2-1 UVC). The last time Endicott and MIT faced off was in the opening round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament when the Blue and Green stunned MIT, who were then ranked #6 in the country, in straight sets to reach the NCAA Quarterfinals.
Junior middle Daniel Toth (Vernon, N.J.) and sophomore middle Ryan Sutherland (Fairport, N.Y.) each had a match-high six kills, junior outside Chandler Tayek (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) and sophomore outside Tyler Willgoos (Newington, Conn.) added five kills, and junior outside John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) continued his efficiency against NECC opponents with four kills in a single set of play.
In two sets on the court, Toth factored into five different Endicott blocks including one solo stuff while three of his teammates contributed with three assisted blocks apiece. Tayek, senior outside Billy Mullen (Weymouth, Mass.), and junior setter Cameron Little (San Diego, Calif.) made their presence felt defensively at the net as well as offensively with Mullen striking two kills and an ace and Little distributing nine assists.
Along with Little's setting numbers, freshmen setters Troy Riorden (Fairport, N.Y.) and Amar Patel (Keene, N.H.) each dished out eight assists in the win. Riorden also had three kills and Patel totaled two digs and an ace.
Senior captain and defensive specialist Kristian Catalan (Sudbury, Mass.) had a team-high nine digs, Tayek added three digs, and both Riorden and Patel had two each.
