BROOKLINE, Mass. – The Wentworth men's volleyball team improved to 5-4 on the season after splitting a pair of matches Saturday at Hellenic College. The Leopards battled through five games to defeat host Newbury, 3-2, before falling to Southern Vermont, 3-0.
Against Newbury, the Leopards came out of the gate firing and took an early 1-0 lead winning the first ga,e, 25-21. Sophomore middle blocker Brian Mann (East Freetown, Mass.) was red-hot registering four kills in five total attempts while classmate, outside hitter Ross Burdett (Needham, Mass.) and freshman middle blocker Israel Shaw (New Ipswich, N.H.) followed up with three.
However, the Nighthawks settled down and battled back. Freshman outside hitter Chi Yin Li (Framingham, Mass.) responded to a rough first set and dominated the Leopards in the second game, Tallying five kills with zero attack errors Li helped Newbury knot up the match at one game apiece, with the 25-21 victory.
After the Leopards took the third game, 25-18, on the heels of four kills from Burdett, Newbury forced a deciding-game five with a 25-22 win in the fourth game. Senior opposite hitter Chris Chin (Brockton, Mass.) had four kills in the victory.
Just like the four games that preceded it, the fifth game was back and forth. The Leopards jumped out to a 13-8 lead late in the game before, the Nighthawks began to mount a comeback, pulling within two of the lead following an attack error. However, it was as close as the Nighthawks got as sophomore opposite hitter Mike Buonincontra (Shelton, Conn.) slammed the door on the 3-2 match victory with his third kill of the game and seventh of the game.
Burdett finished with 16 kills, while Mann added 11. Burdett and Buonincontra each had nine digs in the match, while freshman Drew Estes (Trophy Club, Texas) added six. Junior Tyler Moriarty (Wilbraham, Mass.) had 39 assists.
Wentworth saw its two-match win streak come to an end against Southern Vermont as the Mountaineers received five kills in 11 attempts from Kevin Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) to help the Mountaineers take the 1-0 lead with the 25-21 first game victory. Burdett and freshman outside hitter Rami Akouri (Fall River, Mass.) helped the Leopards with four kills apiece.
Freshman middle hitter Corey Mills (Fresno, Calif.) recorded a .667 attack percentage in the second set as the Mountaineers fended off a Leopard comeback to claim the second game 25-20. In the game two loss Burdett had seven kills on 12 attempts.
The Mountaineers spread the offense around and completed the three-game sweep with a 25-16 victory in Sophomore outside hitter Anthony Barahona (Eagle Rock, Calif.) registered three kills on five total attempts for a .600 attack percentage.
For the match Burdett again paced the Leopards with a 12-kill performance with Akouri adding seven kills and five digs. Buonincontra and junior Rick Pignataro (Wilbraham, Mass.) led the team with six digs apiece. Moriarty added 23 assists for the Black & Gold.
(Portions of this Release Courtesy of Newbury Sports Information)
Southern Vermont
Newbury