No. 5 MIT Tops Men’s Volleyball, 3-1

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior outside hitter Carlos DeLeon (Carolina, Puerto Rico) smashed a match-best 14 kills and added nine digs, but No. 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) received eight-kill efforts from Ken Siebert (St. Louis, Mo.), David Thomas (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Alex Klein (San Diego, Calif.) to help seal a 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 19-25, 25-13) victory over the Blazers in Wednesday evening's non-conference men's volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.

With the loss, Elms falls to 8-4 on the season, while MIT improves to 10-3 overall.

With MIT ahead 2-0 in the match, the sides fought to seven ties and two lead changes in set three before the Engineers posted a 14-11 lead on a kill by Klein. Elms then used a 6-0 rally highlighted by three DeLeon kills allowing the Blazers to post a 17-14 lead.

Elms kept its edge and set the score at 21-19 before closing out the set on a 4-0 run behind a kill from senior outside hitter Yonalvy Acosta (Holyoke, Mass.), an assisted block from Acosta and freshman middle hitter Angel Castro (Carolina, Puerto Rico), and two service aces by junior outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Mass.) to complete a 25-19 set three victory and force a fourth frame.

In the fourth set, MIT stormed out to a 23-12 lead before DeLeon floored his 14^th kill of the contest to pull the Blazers to within 10 at 23-13. From there a kill by Siebert and an ace from Siebert sealed the match for the Engineers.

Cameron finished with eight kills and eight digs in the losing effort, while Rainey added a match-high 10 digs and seven kills.

Sophomore setter Daniel Lebron (San Juan, Puerto Rico) dished out a match-high 35 assists, while Cameron added three service aces.

Paul Syta (Fairport, N.Y.) directed MIT's well-balanced attack handing out 31 assists and notching a team-high seven digs, while libero Jeremy Velazquez (Chelmsford, Mass.) and Siebert collected six digs each in the winning effort.

Syta and Patrick Vatterott (St. Louis, Mo.) tabbed two solo blocks each, while Siebert notched six service aces.

Elms returns to conference action on Saturday, Feb. 18 at Regis College at 1:00 p.m.