BOSTON, Mass. – Junior Alex Potts (Niverville, N.Y.) recorded nine kills on nine swings to pace the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over Albertus Magnus in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference opener for both squads.
Winners of two in a row the Leopards improve to 4-2 (1-0) while the Falcons dropped their season opener.
Paced by Potts' five kills and two blocks in the first set, Wentworth hit .455. A 7-2 Leopard run broke the only tie in the set (1-1) and gave the hosts an 8-3 lead after an Albertus Magnus service error. The Falcons would pull within a pair (15-13) after a senior Ben Spilka (Redding, Conn.) service ace and would trail 19-17 after a Spilka kill. Sophomore Sean Mullen (Longwood, Fla.) recorded a kill and then served a pair of aces to make it a 22-17 set and Wentworth would win, 25-18.
The second set featured seven ties and four lead changes and the Leopards found themselves training 8-7 after an attack error. However, Wentworth rolled off seven straight points to take a 14-8 lead after a Falcon attack error. Albertus Magnus would get within four points on a pair of occasions, including at 16-12 after a freshman Jeremy Oritz kill. That would be as close as the visitors would get as the Leopards went on a 9-2 run to end the set. Potts had four kills and two blocks in the set while sophomores Jon Roat (Macedon, N.Y.) and Ollie Oshman (Pennington, N.J.) had three kills apiece in the set. As a team the Leopards hit .417 in the frame.
Albertus Magnus took advantage of Wentworth miscues and a Turner kill to take a 5-2 lead in the early part of the third set. The Leopards scored the next three points to even the set at 5-all and the teams traded points twice to have the set tied at 7-all. An ace from Spilka and a block gave the Falcons a 9-7 lead. Wentworth responded with a 5-0 run, capped off by a kill from Oshman, to take a 12-9 lead. Senior Connor Filkins (Wallingford, Conn.) pulled the visitors within 12-11 but four straight points from Wentworth broke the set open as the Black & Gold went on to complete the sweep with a 25-16 win.
In addition to his nine kills, Potts had four blocks. Roat and Oshman had six kills each. Mullen had four aces, and sophomore Kevin McPeek (Bethlehem, Pa.) had 30 assists and three blocks.
Senior Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) had eight kills for the Falcons.
Wentworth heads to Kean University on Saturday to take on a pair of nationally ranked foes in Baruch and Rutger-Newark.
