Men’s Volleyball Falls to Southern Vermont College, 3-0

BENNINGTON, Vt. – Elms College senior middle hitter Bryson Rainey (Brookline, Mass.) notched a team-high seven kills and senior setter Kordel Latimer (Lynn, Mass.) passed out 10 assists and team-best seven digs but Southern Vermont College powered to a 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-23) sweep of the Blazers in Wednesday evening's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's volleyball match in Bennington, Vt.

With the loss, Elms moves to 6-16 overall, 4-7 in NECC action, while Southern Vermont improves to 12-9 on the season, 8-4 in conference action.

Rainey floored seven of Elms' 12 kills in the contest and added five digs, while sophomore outside hitter Ethan Etheridge (Pawtucket, R.I.) followed with two kills and two digs. Sophomore Roger Conklin (Chicopee, Mass.) chipped in four digs, while Latimer, freshmen Ian Isgut (San Juan, Puerto Rico) and Austin DeCosmo (Southwick, Mass.) added a kill each.

Anthony Barahona (Eagle Rock, Calif.) led Southern Vermont with a match-high 16 kills, while Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) and Scott Fitzgerald (Fort Edward, Nev.) downed 11 and 10 kills each in the winning effort.

Setter Anthony Ayala (Pico Rivera, Calif.) directed the Mountaineer's attack with 33 assists and led Southern Vermont to an overall hitting percentage of .329. Florentino Escovedo (Fresno, Calif.) led all players with eight digs, followed by four from Fitzgerald.

The Mountaineers also served up 14 service aces including six from Barahona and two apiece from Dighton, Ayala and Anthony Contreras (Norwalk, Calif.).

After posting a 2-0 lead in the match thanks to first and second set scores of 25-13 and 25-10, Southern Vermont cruised to a 19-9 lead in the third set before Elms rallied scoring 13 of the next 16 points to even the set at 22-22 sparked by a kill each from Latimer, Isgut and Etheridge, an assisted block by DeCosmo and Latimer, a service ace from Isgut and sophomore outside hitter Cristian Arroyo (Chicopee, Mass.) and seven Mountaineers' errors.

Back-to-back kills by Barahona set the score at 24-22 before Latimer and DeCosmo stuffed his next swing to pull the Blazers back to within one at 24-23, but Fitzgerald connected for the match-winning kill to clinch the set, 25-23 and complete the 3-0 sweep.

Elms concludes regular season action on Saturday, April 5 with an NECC match at Daniel Webster College at 4:00 p.m. in Nashua, N.H.