No. 13 MIT Sweeps Men’s Volleyball, 3-0

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College sophomore outside hitter Angel Castro (Carolina, Puerto Rico) and freshman outside hitter Jeff Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) each floored a team-high five kills, but No. 13 MIT used eight kills from Ken Siebert (St. Louis, Mo.) and the Engineers hit at a .308 clip as a unit to help stake a 3-0 (25-15, 25-8, 25-18) victory in Thursday evening's non-conference men's volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.

With the loss, Elms suffers its first setback of the 2013 season to move to 4-1 overall. MIT improves to 3-3 on the season.

The sides battled to two early ties and pair of lead changes to start the opening set before MIT broke a 6-6 tie with a 10-1 run that set the score to 16-7. The run featured a pair of kills from Siebert and one each from Patterick Vatterott (St. Louis, Mo.) and Paul Syta (Fairport, N.Y.). The Engineers extended their lead to 21-14 before closing out the frame with a 5-1 run highlighted by a kill each from Siebert, Syta and Vatterott as well as a service ace from Siebert.

MIT raced out to a 9-0 lead to start the second stanza and didn't look back, taking the set 25-8.

In the third set, the teams fought to five tie scores and a lead change before a Syta kill broke a 7-7 stalemate and started an 11-4 run that set the score at 18-11 in favor of the Engineers. Vautrin halted that run with a kill, and with the score set at 22-14, Elms used a 3-0 run that featured three straight miscues from MIT to pull the Blazers to within five at 22-17.

An assisted block by Andrew Hochstadt (Roselle, Ill.) and Matt Hohenberger (St. Louis, Mo.), and a pair of Elms attacking errors helped MIT score three of the final four points and seal the match with a 25-18 victory in the third set.

Blazers' junior setter Daniel Lebron (San Juan, Puerto Rico) dished out 17 assists, while Castro and Vautrin led the team with six digs each in the losing effort.

Senior outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Conn.) registered four kills and five digs, while junior opposite hitter Kordel Latimer (Lynn, Mass.) delivered three kills and assisted on four blocks.

Hohenberger totaled seven kills, one shy of Siebert's match-best eight kills, and both added four digs. Libero Brendan Chang (Laytonsville, Md.) notched a match-high 12 digs and Syta orchestrated the MIT attack with 26 assists.

Siebert added four service aces, while Syta and Tavish Smith (Oceanside, Calif.) assisted on three blocks apiece.

Elms opens New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) action on Saturday, Feb. 2 when it hosts Endicott College at 7:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.