BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott men's volleyball team forced five with 11th-ranked MIT despite losing the first two sets but suffered a 3-2 (25-23, 25-10, 23-25, 19-25, 15-7) defeat at home to see their 2015 record drop to 5-7 overall. The Gulls got a career-high 17 kills from junior outside Dan Seaver (Milford, Mass.) but a furious blocking presence by the Engineers generated 15.5 team blocks to help secure MIT's third straight victory.
Thirteen of Seaver's match-high 17 kills came in the third and fourth sets which helped the Blue and Green erase the memory of first and second set losses to fall that forced the team into a 2-0 hole. Joining Seaver on his offensive barrage during Endicott's 25-23 and 25-19 wins in third and fourth sets was fellow junior John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) who added 11 of his 16 kills as well as 11 total digs to combat MIT's attack.
Osborne would finish amass a career-high 20 digs in the loss as Endicott held a 70-56 advantage in that statistical category.
Endicott's demise in a 15-7 fifth set loss would be their own doing with eight attack errors on 17 attempts while MIT struck six kills on 13 swings and blocked two attacks at the net. The Engineers opened the fifth set on a 4-0 run and held an 8-5 lead at the changeover. Another four-point rally that included a kill and a block assist by MIT outside Martin Krasuski (Aurora, Ill.) forced a Gulls timeout with the Engineers leading 12-5. The two teams would exchange points and with MIT leading 14-7 one final attack error by Endicott ended the match.
MIT senior opposite Alex Klein (San Diego, Calif.) took a match-high 48 swings and landed 14 kills (.146) while totaling 11 digs and eight block assists. Engineers freshman middle Jack Serrino (Glencoe, Ill.), however, was MIT's most impactful player with 11 kills on 22 swings (.455) with a stunning two solo blocks and eight block assists. Krasuski and senior middle Andrew Busse (Mount Prospect, Ill.) also made their presence felt on the block with three and five block assists, respectively.
Gulls junior setter Cameron Little (San Diego, Calif.) had one of his finest efforts to-date with a career-best 48 assists and 10 digs as he distributed the ball out to six different Endicott hitters. His counterpart, MIT junior Brendan Chang (Laytonsville, Md.) total 41 assists, seven digs, two kills, two aces, and two block assists in the win. Another one of Little's favorite targets the match was sophomore middle Ryan Sutherland (Fairport, N.Y.) who had seven kills on a .417 hitting percentage.
Defensively for Endicott, junior middle Daniel Toth (Vernon, N.J.) led the team with a solo block and three block assists while junior Alex Wasik (Milford, Mass.), Seaver, and Sutherland all combined for multiple assisted blocks.
Endicott returns to their NECC schedule with a road match on Saturday, February 28th at 1:00 p.m. against Elms who they previously defeated 25-18, 25-18, 25-18 just 13 days ago. MIT (11-2) travels to Illinois this weekend to take on Benedictine, Lakeland, and Dominican.
