Men’s Volleyball Battles Past Lasell College, 3-1

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior setters Daniel Lebron (San Juan, Puerto Rico) and Kevin Welsh (Wilbraham, Mass.) combined for 42 assists and the Blazers had three players register double-digit kills in a 3-1 (26-24, 20-25, 25-16, 25-22) win over Lasell College in Wednesday evening's non-conference men's volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.

With the win, Elms improves to 6-2 on the season, while Lasell moves to 1-1 overall.

With the match even at one set each, the teams fought through four early tie scores before Elms broke a 5-5 deadlock and notched a 20-10 lead in the third frame. With the score set at 23-14, a Lasers' service error gave the Blazers set point at 24-13. Lasell then used an Elms service miscue and a service ace by Matt Dugan (New Lenox, Ill.) to pull to within eight, but the Lasers missed the ensuing service opportunity and fell behind 2-1 in the contest.

In the fourth frame, the teams struggled through eight more stalemates and a 15-15 score with neither team securing more than a three-point lead. Trailing 23-21 after service error, Lasell's Ryan Jackson (Massillon, Ohio) and Drew Caruso (Haverhill, Mass.) assisted on a block to pull the Lasers to within one at 23-22. Elms answered when junior middle hitter Bryson Rainey (Brookline, Mass.) and senior outside hitter Stephen Cameron (Newington, Conn.) blasted back-to-back kills to give the Blazers a hard-fought 25-22 victory in the fourth set and a 3-1 win in the contest.

Cameron finished with a team-high 12 points, while Rainey and freshman outside hitter Jeff Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) added 10 kills each as the Blazers hit .303 as a squad for the match.

Lebron dished out a match-best 24 assists, while Welsh followed with 18 helpers in the winning effort.

Vautrin led the defensive efforts with 11 digs, followed by nine each from Lebron and Rainey and eight from Cameron. Sophomore middle hitter Angel Castro (Carolina, Puerto Rico) finished with seven digs, while freshman outside hitter Aleksandr Kuzmenko (Chicopee, Mass.) hit .700 for the match off the bench with seven kills on 10 swings with no errors.

Junior opposite hitter Kordel Latimer (Lynn, Mass.) was a force at the net with three assisted blocks and five kills while Castro added six kills.

Dan Raffol (Natick, Mass.) led the Lasers with a match-high 18 kills and added eight digs, while Alex Mill (Danville, N.H.) added eight kills in the loss.

Dugan and Jackson propelled the Lasell offense with 18 and 17 assists respectively, and Mill helped in the service game with five of the team's 10 aces. Chris Burns (Chelmsford, Mass.) totaled a team-high 10 digs, followed by nine from Dugan.

Elms is back in action on Saturday, February 16 when it hosts Lesley University in its New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) opener at 7:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.