BOSTON, Mass. – The No. 14 nationally ranked Endicott men's volleyball team posted a 3-1 non-conference victory over No. 13 Wentworth by scores of 25-16, 25-18, 31-33, and 26-24 on Thursday night inside Tansey Gymnasium.
Donovan Dey (Fairport, N.Y.) guided Endicott offensively as the senior opposite tied his career-high for kills with 20 (.559, 20K-1E-34TA).
The Gulls also saw Erich Roman (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Bryn Lipton (Rockford, Ill.) contribute 11 kills (.412) and 10 putaways, respectively, while Gabe Felicetti (Charlestown, R.I.) notched nine kills on 15 swings (.467).
Meanwhile, Chad Riorden (Fairport, N.Y.) facilitated the offense behind a career-high 52 assists (.542, 52-96) to round out the list of individual highlights.
After Endicott breezed by Wentworth in the first two sets, the Leopards made a spirited comeback in set three to avoid the sweep, eventually forcing set four behind a 33-31 set three victory. In total, set three featured 18 ties and four lead changes.
From there, set four played out much like set three until the Gulls broke away from a 24-24 tie via a thunderous kill from Felicetti and a combined block by the duo of Lipton and Felicetti to secure the road win.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Endicott is 24-9 against Wentworth in the all-time series.
- The Gulls played in just their second true road match of the season tonight (1-1).
- Endicott won its fourth straight match tonight.
- The four-match winning streak dates back to January 29 (Lasell, 3-1 | MIT, 3-2 | JWU, 3-2 | Wentworth, 3-1).
- The Leopards saw their three-match winning streak snapped tonight.
- Wentworth also lost its first home match of the season (3-1).
- The Gulls .560 hitting percentage in set one (17K-3E-25TA) ranks third-best this year (.750, 15K-0E-20TA & .583, 17K-3E-24TA, both against Lasell on 1/29/2020).
- Roman highlighted the first set with a season-best .556 hitting percentage (6K-1E-9TA).
- Tonight's victory for Endicott was its first at Tansey Gymnasium since March 26, 2011 (W, 3-1).
- Tonight's third set score marks the deepest the Gulls and their opponent have played in a set since March 25, 2010 (No. 11 nationally ranked Rivier | W, 33-31, third set | loss, 3-1, for the match).
- Riorden has re-established his career-high for assists four times this season (35, 40, 51, 52).
- There were 39 ties and 11 lead changes in tonight's match. Only two ties occurred outside of sets three and four.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (6-2) hosts Illinois Tech tomorrow night at 6 PM. Wentworth (6-2) welcomes Illinois Tech to its campus on Sunday, February 9 at 12 PM.
For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
(Photo Credit - David Le '10)
