BOSTON, Mass. - The Wentworth Institute of Technology men's volleyball team opened its 2014 Great Northeast Athletic Conference slate a 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21) victory over the visiting Emerson College Lions at Tansey Gymnasium Wednesday night. With the victory, Wentworth moves to 5-0 on the season, and 1-0 in the GNAC, while Emerson drops to 2-2 and 0-1 in conference. The 5-0 start for the Black & Gold matches the best start in program history, which was in 2001.
Emerson began the match quickly and jumped out to a 4-2 lead, but a Ross Burdett (Needham, Mass.) block tied the match a four a side. Sophomore Bill Shimkus (Sudbury, Mass.) then hit back-to-back aces to give the Leopards a 6-4 lead. A Jack Reed (Arvada, Colo.) kill extended the Wentworth lead to four at 12-8. But the Lions would bounce back to tie the match at 14 after a Jackson Wiley (Los Angeles, Calif.) ace. Sam Pisker (Mullica Hill, N.J.) responded with a kill to give Wentworth a one point lead at 15-14. The teams would stay even until an Alex Potts (Niverville, N.Y.) kill from center-court gave Wentworth a 21-19 advantage. The Leopards would hold on to take the first set 25-22.
The second set would begin in a stalemate with the teams tied early at two, four and six. But a Reed ace followed by a Burdett kill from the left side gave the Leopards some breathing room at 9-6. Shimkus would then step to the service line and deliver similar results as he smashed two aces to help Wentworth score four straight points, extending its lead to 14-7. Burdett then took control of the set with his serve and the Leopards scored on four straight kills; two from Reed and two Sean Donahue (Lincoln, R.I.) to bolster the Leopard lead to 20-11. Emerson battled back, but the Wentworth finished strong taking the set 25-16.
Emerson would jump out to an 8-5 lead in the final set, forcing a Wentworth timeout after a Ben Hillman (South Pasadena, Calif.) ace gave the Lions a 10-6 advantage. After the timeout, the Leopards scored three straight points to get within one at 10-9. Wiley would extend the Lions lead to 12-10 with a kill, but a Donahue kill followed by a Collin Ritter (Feeding Hills, Mass.) kill tied the match at 12-all. The match would then be knotted up at 13 and 14 before a Burdett block gave Wentworth a three-point lead at 17-14. Emerson would get within two at 23-21, but the Leopards would take the final two points to win the set 25-21.
Reed led the Leopards with 10 kills, 11 digs and a block. Burdett added nine kills on a .360 hitting percentage, two blocks and six digs. Shimkus served three aces, while Ritter tallied 32 assists. One of four freshmen to see action, Potts recorded seven kills while classmate Pisker added five kills of his own. As a team Wentworth hit .281.
Wiley led Emerson with 10 kills and six digs while hitting .308. Three Lions – Stanson Afoa (Anchorage, Alaska), Connor Burton (Valencia, Calif.) and Ben Hillman (South Pasadena, Calif.) – all had four kills apiece and eight digs among them. Brendan McGonigle (Los Angeles, Calif.) led the Lions had 23 assists to go along with four digs. Dimitri Gorenc (Thousand Oaks, Calif) led Emerson with a .625 hitting percentage, and had six kills and three digs in the loss.
Wentworth travels to Newbury College on Tuesday, February 4, while the Lions visit Kean University on Friday.