BOSTON, Mass. – Senior Jeffrey Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) recorded 12 kills, served five aces, and had a pair of blocks to help pace the Lasell College men's volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Wentworth Institute of Technology in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match Tuesday night.
Winners of four in a row the Lasers improve to 6-4 overall and 2-0 in league play while the Leopards fall to 7-5 (1-1).
Lasell hit .556 in the opening frame behind three kills from senor Dalton Whitman (Meriden, Conn.), who along with Vautrin, also had two blocks in the set. The Lasers used a 10-3 run in the set to extend their lead from three to 10 at 21-11 on a Whitman ace and took a 25-14 decision. Wentworth junior Jake Reed (Arvada, Colo.) had four kills on four swings in the first set for the Leopards.
Vautrin and senior Ryan Jackson (Canton, Ohio) paced the Laser attack in the second set with four kills each as Lasell went ahead 2-0 with a 25-22 victory. Wentworth had an 11-9 lead after a sophomore Kevin McPeek (Bethlehem, Pa.) kill, however Lasell used a 6-0 run and took a 15-11 lead on a junior Patrick McDonald (Floral Park, N.Y.) kill. The Leopards pulled within one on four occasions, including on a junior Alex Potts' (Niverville, N.Y.) kill at 21-20 and made it 24-22 on back-to-back Lasell errors, however an attack error gave Lasell the win. Roat paced Wentworth with four kills in the set.
Wentworth picked up a 25-19 win in the third set to keep the match alive, thanks to seven kills from Reed and a team attack percentage of .424. After the Leopards had taken a 6-4 lead, Jackson recorded a kill to make it 6-5. However, three straight Wentworth points – coming by way of two Reed kills and a sophomore Sean Mullen (Longwood, Fla.) ace – gave the hosts a 9-5 lead. Wentworth would lead by as many as eight on three occasions, including when a Reed kill made it 24-16. The Lasers scored the next three points but a Mullen kill ended the set. MacDonald, Jackson, and Vautrin had three kills each in the set for Lasell.
The Lasers closed out the match with a 25-15 win in the fourth set as Whitman and Vautrin had four kills apiece. Lasell took the lead for good at 3-2 on a Vautrin kill and saw its lead swell to as many as eight on a pair of occasions, including at 19-11. Three straight Wentworth points – capped off by a block from Mullen and sophomore Ollie Oshman (Pennington, N.J.) – made it 19-14, however the Lasers scored six of the next seven points to seal the win. Lasell hit .500 as a team in the set.
In addition to Vautrin's 12 kills, Jackson had 10 kills while Whitman and MacDonald had seven apiece. Whitman also added three blocks. Freshman Jordan Aprea (Newington, Conn.) had 11 digs and senior Andrew Glenn (Westport, Conn.) had 37 assists.
Reed paced the Leopard offense with 14 kills to go along with an attack percentage of .400 and eight digs. Potts hit an impressive .760 for the match (11-1-13) and added a pair of blocks while Mullen and Roat had eight kills each and the duo had three and two aces, respectively. McPeek had 44 assists in the loss.
Wentworth hosts Rivier on Thursday night while Lasell hosts a tri-match on Saturday with Emmanuel and Mount Ida.
