CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Wentworth Institute of Technology men's volleyball team split a pair of matches at a tri-match hosted by MIT. The Leopards defeated Regis by a 3-0 score before falling to the No. 13 Engineers by a 3-1 final.
Against Regis, Wentworth made quick work of the Pride with set scores of 25-13, 25-9, and 25-19. In the opening set the Leopards hit a match-high .565, making just two errors on 23 total swings as sophomore Jake Reed (Arvada, Colo.) and freshman Sean Mullen (Longwood, Fla.) each had four kills and didn't make an error on 10 combined swings.
Blocking was the key to the second set win as the Leopards had seven blocks and forced Regis to hit -.222. Freshman Jon Roat (Macedon, N.Y.) had four blocks in the set with Mullen and sophomore Alex Potts (Niverville, N.Y.) recording a pair of blocks each. Reed also had four kills and didn't make an error on six swings. The Leopards closed out the match in the third frame as Roat and Reed had five kills apiece.
Reed finished the match with 13 kills, hit .579, and recorded five digs. Roat and Mullen had nine kills apiece and each had four blocks. Roat and Reed also served two aces each. Potts had five kills and three blocks, senior Sean Donahue (Lincoln, R.I.) had six kills, hit .556, and recorded a pair of blocks, and sophomore Collin Ritter (Feeding Hills, Mass.) had 30 assists and 10 digs.
In the opening set, MIT built a 17-12 lead before Wentworth came back and forced the only tie of the set at 23-all after an Engineer service error. However, a Leopard service error and an MIT kill ended the set with a 25-23 Engineer win. Mullen and Reed had three kills each in the first set while Ritter and Donahue had two blocks apiece.
Wentworth evened the match at a set apiece with a 25-23 win in the second set, a set which featured 10 ties and six lead changes. After an MIT service error gave the Leopards a chance to serve for the set at 24-22, an Engineer kill made it 24-23. However, Ritter set up Mullen for the kill which have the Leopards the win. Mullen had six kills in the set (on 10 swings), while Ritter and Donahue had two blocks each. Ritter also had seven digs in the set.
MIT took a 25-20 win in the third set to take a 2-1 lead as the Engineers broke open a 20-19 lead by scoring five of the set's final six points. Mullen had five kills and Roat added three in the set while Ritter and Reed had five and four digs, respectively. The Engineers closed out the match with a 25-21 win in the fourth set. The Engineers led for most of the set before Wentworth closed the gap to 22-21. However, the hosts closed out the match by capitalizing on a block error, recording a block, and recording a kill.
Mullen had a career-high 17 kills in the match to go along with 10 digs. Reed added 12 kills and nine digs, Roat had nine kills and 11 digs, Donahue had six kills and five blocks, and Ritter had three kills, two aces, 44 assists, 19 digs, and four blocks.
At 6-2, Wentworth resumes Great Northeast Athletic Conference play on Tuesday night against Lasell.
#13 MIT