Men’s Volleyball Falls to Endicott College, 3-0

BEVERLY, Mass.  – Elms College freshman outside hitter Jeff Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) registered a team-high 11 kills and junior setter Kevin Welsh (Wilbraham, Mass.) dished out 29 assists but Endicott College used a match-high 14 kills from Josh Anderson (La Canada, Calif.) to help pace the top-seeded Gulls to a 3-0 (27-25, 25-17, 25-20) sweep of the third-seeded Blazers in Saturday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament title match at MacDonald Gymnasium in Beverly, Mass.

With the win, Endicott improves to 22-9 overall and punched its ticket to the second-ever NCAA Division III Championship. Elms moves to 15-14 on the season and will await a possible bid to the ECAC Championship tournament.

For their efforts during the tournament, Vautrin and Welsh were both named to the 2013 NECC All-Tournament team.

In the opening set, the sides battled to 17 tie scores and a 25-25 score before Matt Devendorf (Glastonbury, Conn.) downed a kill and Mike Coniglione (Glenville, N.Y.) served up an ace to give Endicott a hard-fought 27-25 victory in the first set. Elms battled back from set point four times in the frame taking advantage of four attacking errors by the Gulls.

In the second set, Elms pulled to within five (22-17) on an Endicott attacking error, but the Gulls rallied for three straight points as Anderson and John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) downed back-to-back kills, and sealed the frame on an assisted block by Anderson and Alex Wasik (Milford, Mass.) to give Endicott a 2-0 lead in the match.

In the third stanza, Vautrin smashed a kill with his team trailing 23-19 to pull the Blazers to within three, but the Gulls used a termination by Osborne and an Elms mishit to seal the frame 25-20 and the match.

Elms' sophomore middle hitter Angel Castro (Carolina, Puerto Rico) totaled a team-high 12 digs and added nine kills, senior outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Conn.) dug 10 balls and junior middle hitter Bryson Rainey (Brookline, Mass.) registered nine digs to highlight the loss for the Blazers.

Castro and freshman outside hitter Aleksandr Kuzmenko (Chicopee, Mass.) assisted on three blocks each, while Kuzmenko added six kills in the losing effort.

Endicott received an 11-kill, 11-dig effort Osborne, while Aaron Jessee (Okinawa, Japan) notched a match-best 16 digs. The Gulls added a balanced attacking effort from Wasik and Devendorf who floored nine kills each, while Carter Roche (Clifton Park, N.Y.) totaled 42 assists.