Nashua, N.H. – Freshman Joe Walz (East Longmeadow, Mass.) tallied a match high 26 kills and added three solo blocks while junior Chris Shannon (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) added 17 kills and digs but visiting Wentworth came back from a 2-1 deficit to post a wild, 3-2 victory in a North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) matchup Tuesday night at Mario Vagge Gymnasium.
Ross Burdett (Needham, Mass.) tallied 19 kills to lead the Leopards (19-8, 10-4 NECVA), who tied the program record for wins in a season set in 2000, adding four service aces, while Derek Portugal (Barrington, R.I.) notched 16 kills, 16 digs and two solo blocks as Wentworth prevailed with set scores of 21-25, 31-29, 24-26, 25-23 and 15-9.
The Eagles (6-14, 6-10 NECVA) now set themselves for the NECC championship tournament. DWC is the third seed in the four-team field and will face second seed Elms College on Friday night in a semifinal matchup beginning at 8:00 p.m. with top seed Newbury College hosting on the campus of Hellenic College.
Semifinal winners advance to the NECC title game to be played on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
Tyler Moriarty (Wilbraham, Mass.) dished out 45 assists and 11 digs for Wentworth while DWC's Kyle Clement (Weymouth, Mass.) finished with a career high 50 helpers and added nine digs and three total blocks.
Andrew Smith (Essex Junction, Vt.) pulled in a match high 21 digs for the Eagles, while Ian Catenzaro (Londonderry, N.H.) chipped in with seven kills.
Marc Larue's (Lincoln, R.I.) 19 digs paced the Wentworth back line.
Remarkably, both teams were even offensively, hitting .185 each, finished even in totals assists (50-50) and forged a total of 46 ties and 16 lead changes throughout the match. But Wentworth saved its best for last, hitting .500 in the fifth set (9-0-18) while DWC hit .200 (7-3-20).
The teams were tied five times in the final set, the last coming at 6-6, but three huge kills from Burdett sparked a 5-1 run to put the visitors ahead, 11-7. After a Walz kill closed the gap to 11-9, the Leopards closed it out with four straight including the clincher from Portugal for the 15-9 final.
DWC controlled the opening set, trailing only once with Walz knocking down six kills in the 25-21 win.
Set two was a remarkable back and forth as DWC staved off six straight Wentworth set points before back to back kills from Portugal (seven kills in the set) and Burdett sealed the wild, 31-29 win.
Burdett (seven kills) and Walz (six kills) went head to head again in the third as the set saw 16 ties including 24-all before back to back WIT hitting errors gave the Eagles the 26-24 win.
Wentworth answered in the fourth however, leading by as many as five (20-15) on the way to the 25-23 win. The Leopards are at Mound Ida tomorrow night.
-Release Courtesy of Daniel Webster Sports Information-
