BOSTON, Mass. – The Wentworth men's volleyball team ran its conference win streak to five with two GNAC wins against Emerson and Emmanuel on Saturday afternoon inside Brown & Plofker Gym.
The Leopards improve to 10-2 in conference play and remain in the top-two in the standings with two league games left to play.
Match One: Wentworth 3, Emerson 0 (25-10, 25-14, 25-22)
The Leopards hit .434 as a team to take care of the Lions in straight sets, highlighted by .778 hitting in the first with 15 kills and just one error on 18 swings. Juniors Xhuljo Zyba (Holbrook, Mass.) and Ryan Engel (Floral Park, N.Y.) were Wentworth's most efficient hitters by a long shot, as Zyba hit .714 with 11 kills while Engel hit .600 with 10 kills.
The Leopards dominated the stat sheet in the tri-match opener, holding a 45-23 advantage in kills and a 36-16 advantage in digs. Junior Augusto Rodriguez-Guerrios (San Juan, P.R.) assisted on 31 of the Leopards' 43 kills, while sophomore Peter Klembczyk (Penfield, N.Y.) led the defense with nine digs.
Match Two: Wentworth 3, Emmanuel 1 (35-27, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21)
Klembczyk backstopped the Leopards to the four-set win against the Saints, and set the single-match digs record with 31 overall. In the Leopards' second elongated set of the week, Zyba opened the frame with back-to-back kills, but Emmanuel later broke a 6-6 tie with a 6-2 run for a 12-8 lead. Wentworth got right back in the game with Zyba on the serve, and turned a 7-2 run of their own to steal the lead 15-14 after a service ace from sophomore David Marsh (Springfield, Mass.). Both teams battled point-for-point with neither taking more than a two-point lead until match point, which ended on two Wentworth errors to give Emmanuel the first set, 37-35. Wentworth went on to win the following three sets after being down 0-1 to start the match, all of which were closely contested by Emmanuel.
Klembczyk was joined by junior Ryan Love (Gaithersburg, Md.) in career-high numbers, who registered 23 kills and 10 digs for his third double-double of the season. Classmate Engel also posted a double-double, his fifth of the season, with 11 kills and 11 digs.
Wentworth hits the road for a big matchup on Tuesday at Rivier, the lone undefeated team in the GNAC, also ranked at #14 in the latest AVCA Division III Poll. First serve between the Leopards and the Raiders is set for 7:00 p.m.
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