Men’s Volleyball Swings Past Newbury College, 3-0

BROOKLINE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore middle hitter Bryson Rainey (Brookline, Mass.) delivered a match-high 10 kills and sophomore setter Daniel Lebron (San Juan, Puerto Rico) dished out 32 assists to help lift the Blazers to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-15) sweep of Newbury College in Sunday's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's volleyball match at Hellenic College.

With the win, Elms improves to 14-6 overall, 6-2 in NECC play, while Newbury drops to 6-11 on the season, 4-5 in conference action.

In the opening set, Elms opened up a lead of as many as nine (15-6) on a kill by junior outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Conn.) before Newbury battled back to pull to within two at 21-19 on a kill by Jarryl McKey (Brooklyn, N.Y.). From there, Blazers' freshman middle hitter Angel Castro (Carolina, Puerto Rico) smashed a kill and the Nighthawks suffered three straight attacking errors to allow Elms to secure a 25-19 victory in the first frame.

In the second set, the sides fought to seven ties and a lead change before Elms' senior outside hitter Carlos DeLeon (Carolina, Puerto Rico) broke a 12-12 deadlock with a kill to give the Blazers their first advantage of the set. Following a kill by the Nighthawks' Chris Chin (Brockton, Mass.) that evened the stanza at 13-13, a Newbury service error allowed Elms to regain the lead. The Nighthawks crept to within one (20-19) on a service ace by Chi Yin Li (Framingham, Mass.) before the Blazers scored five of the next six points behind kills from Rainey and DeLeon, a service ace by Castro and a solo block by senior outside hitter Yonalvy Acosta (Holyoke, Mass.).

In the third set, Elms held its advantage from start to finish as the Blazers roared out to a 20-10 lead and won the set 25-15.

Rainey downed 10 kills, and added an ace and three digs, while DeLeon finished with nine kills (.667 hitting percentage) and a match-best 10 digs in the winning effort. Castro followed with six kills and five digs and hit at a .556 percentage, while Cameron and Acosta chipped in five and four kills respectively and notched four digs each.

Li led Newbury with six kills and five digs, Chin added five kills and four digs, and Cody Braden (Fair Grove, Mo.) notched a team-high six digs and distributed 19 assists in the losing effort.

Elms returns to NECC action on Thursday, March 29 when it hosts Southern Vermont College at 7:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.