Men's Volleyball Captures Home Opener, 3-0 over Newbury

NEWTON, Mass. (1/29/14) - The Lasell College men's volleyball team opened their home schedule with a 3-0 non-conference sweep against the Nighthawks of Newbury College on Wednesday night. Lasell grabbed the win, with scores of 25-15, 25-16, and 25-15, improving to 4-1 on the season,  while the Nighthawks dropped to 0-3 this year. 

Junior Daniel Raffol (Natick, Mass.) posted a match-high ten kills for the Lasers and sophomore Andrew Glenn (Westport, Conn.) tallied a match-high 19 assists. Sophomore Ryan Jackson (Massillon, Ohio.) led Lasell and the match with a total of nine digs, while classmate Jeff Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) converted three serving aces on the night. As a team, the Lasers used a .339 hitting percentage to defeat the visiting Nighthawks.

Senior Patrick Robidoux (Barrington, R.I) led the visitors in assists with ten on the night to go along with three digs for the Nighthawks. Freshman Billy Stephen (Windermere, Fla.) and Junior Chi Yin Li (Framingham, Mass.) each recorded team-highs in kills with six. 

The Lasers opened the first set with an 11-3 run before the Nighthawks made a push to pull within five at 17-12 by scoring nine of the next 15 points. Lasell kept their lead and won the first set by a score of 25-15. The Lasers and the Nighthawks traded points back and forth through the first half of the second set as the score was tied at 10-10. In the second half of this set, the Lasers used a trio of service aces from Glenn, Vautrin, and Abdulrehman Khan (Karachi, Pakistan.) and a run of 15-6 to defeat the Nighthawks 25-16. In the third and final set, the team traded points tying the score at 5-5, before the Lasers went on a 12-3 run to take a 17-8 lead, scoring on four consecutive successful serves from Matthew Dugan (New Lenox, Ill.). The Nighthawks scored another seven points in the set, but struggled to comeback from such a large deficit, dropping the final set and match 25-15.

The Nighthawks return to action as they continue their road swing with a match against the Raiders of Rivier University on Saturday February, 1 at 5:00 p.m., while the Lasers stay at home on Saturday and host New York University for a 1:00 p.m. match start.