Men’s Volleyball Sweeps By Daniel Webster College, 3-0; Advances To NECC Championship Match

Box Score

BROOKLINE, Mass. – The second-seeded Elms College men's volleyball team swept No. 3 Daniel Webster College, 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-16) to advance to Saturday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship title match at 2:00 p.m. at Hellenic College in Brookline, Mass.

With the win, Elms improves to 12-16 overall and will face top seed and host Newbury College (22-11) which downed fourth-seeded Southern Vermont College (5-18) to punch its ticket to the championship contest.

This is Elms' second trip to the conference title match in three years as the Blazers earned a 3-1 victory over Newbury to win the inaugural NECC Championship in 2009.

Elms' junior middle hitter Yonalvy Acosta (Holyoke, Mass.) tied Daniel Webster's Joe Walz (East Longmeadow, Mass.) with a match-high 11 kills while junior libero Michael Martin (Enfield, Conn.) and sophomore outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Conn.) finished with a match-best eight digs each.

Leading 2-0 in the match, Elms sprinted to a 17-11 lead in the third frame before Daniel Webster scored three of the next four points to cut its deficit to four at 18-14. The Blazers answered with a 3-1 run of their own to extend the lead back to six at 21-15 and a kill by freshman middle hitter Bryson Rainey (Brookline, Mass.) and one from freshman setter Daniel Lebron (San Juan, Puerto Rico) pushed the cushion to 23-15 before the Eagles received a kill by Ian Catenzaro (Londonderry, N.H.) to set the score at 23-16. From there, Rainey smashed his ninth kill of the match and Daniel Webster suffered an attacking error to give Elms a 25-16 win in the set and secure its berth in the NECC championship.

Elms set the tone early, hitting an efficient .400 (8K, 2E, 15TA) in the opening set highlighted by a five-kill effort from Acosta.

In the second stanza, Daniel Webster's Chris Shannon (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) blasted six kills but Acosta struck for five more kills to help the Blazers to a 25-20 win and stake a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

Cameron finished with five kills in addition to his eight digs, while Lebron added four kills to his 21-assist performance.

Shannon totaled nine kills and Walz added a team-best five digs, while Kyle Clement (Weymouth, Mass.) handed out a contest-best 23 helpers in the losing effort.