Mens Volleyball Goes 1-2 at The Clash at Kean

UNION, N.J. (2/7/15) - The men's volleyball team lost two matches and won a single match in The Clash at Kean Tournament this past weekend in the Harwood Arena. The squad took two 3-0 losses to Stevens Institute of Technology and Juniata College, and finished up the weekend with a 3-2 win over Stevenson University. After the tournament, the Lasers are 8-3 on the year. 

Lasell 0 Juniata 3

Juniata took all three sets against the Lasers, with scores of 25-19, 25-19, and 25-20. Junior Jeffrey Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) paced the Lasers with seven kills and four digs. Senior Dan Raffol (Natick, Mass.) chipped in with four kills and nine digs, while junior Andrew Glenn (Westport, Conn.) dished out 19 assists. 

For the Eagles, Justin Waldorf led all players with 12 kills, hitting at .647%. Joe Bortak had seven kills and four digs for Juniata, also earning a stellar hitting percentage of .636%. 

Lasell 3 Stevenson 2

The Lasers took the Mustangs to five sets with scores of 25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 20-25 and 15-13.The squads went one-for-one until the final set, where the Lasers secured the match victory. Vautrin had 23 kills and 10 digs while Raffol had 14 kills and 15 digs. sophomore Patrick MacDonald (Floral, N.Y.) also chipped in with 12 kills and nine digs. Glenn assisted 55 points in the match while also contributing with nine digs. 

Mustangs' Nate Ellis and Kyle Wisner had 13 kills apiece in the losing effort, while Patrick Schuyler had 11 kills. 

The score was all tied up on two separate occasions in the opening set, however the Lasers held onto the lead after the second tiebreaker via a pair of kills from Raffol. Lasell went on a 7-1 run to bump the score to 17-10, led by Raffol in kills. 

The second match went in favor of the opponents, who jumped to an early 7-3 lead. Vautrin answered the deficit with a kill to put the Lasers at 4, however, the Mustangs pressed offensively to go ahead of the Lasers by as many as eight points. A trio of kills from David Moler secured the second set for Stevenson, tying the match at one all.

The Lasers scored the opening 11 of 18 points in the third set, capped by four kills from Vautrin. The Mustangs evened the score 11-11 after a bad set from Lasell, where they then took the lead for the remainder of the set. A pair of kills from Vautrin put the Lasers behind by just one, but the Mustangs came out on top 25-23.

With the match going in favor of Lasell 2-1, the teams battled for points in the fourth set with the score evening out on numerous occasions. A 25-20 win for Stevenson would take the teams into the fifth set, where the teams continued to battle it out. Points were again evenly distributed amongst both teams until the final plays of the game. Vautrin gave Lasell 14 points with a final kill, followed by a block from Raffol and junior Drew Caruso (Haverhill, Mass.) to secure the 15-14 set victory and a 3-2 win on the day.

The squad returns to the court on Monday, February 9 to face conference rival Mount Ida at 6:00 p.m.