Emmanuel College defeated the Albertus Magnus men's volleyball team 3-1 on Sunday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play.
The Saints hit .310 on the afternoon with 51 kills in over 100 attempts, while Albertus hit .171 with 51 kills as well.
Emmanuel won the first set of the contest 25-21 as Zach Whitermore led the team with four kills in five tries. Brendan Charamut (Southington, Conn.), Joshua Turner (Trumbull, Conn.) and Glenn Johnson (Newington, Conn.) led Albertus with three kills apiece.
In the second set, Albertus led 18-13 then pushed out to a 20-15 lead. Emmanuel climbed back into the set to cut Albertus' lead to 22-20. With the score 24-22, Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) had a perfectly timed kill to secure the set victory over the Saints. Charamut led the Falcons with five kills in seven attempts in the frame.
Emmanuel controlled tempo in the third set and took home a dominating 25-14 win. Rojas led the Falcons with six kills in the set loss.
Again, Emmanuel ran out to an impressive lead 10-5 lead in the fourth set before the Falcons bounced back to tie the set at 14 on a Douglas DeSousa (Danbury, Conn.) solo block. Play went back and forth in the set before Emmanuel extended its lead to 21-16. Emmanuel took control of the final minutes of the contest and cruised to the 25-18 victory.
The Saints were led by Whitermore with 16 kills in 27 attempts as he added eight digs and five blocks. Sean Baxley dished out 44 assists to go along with three service aces and five digs.
Wyatt Cooper and Ashanti Jackson both added nine kills for the Saints.
Albertus' Raul Rivera Rojas (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) led the Falcons with 16 kills, while Charamut added 11 kills in 26 tries. Johnson finished with nine kills. DeSousa handed out 42 helpers in the loss, while he had seven digs. Charamut tallied 10 digs for the Falcons, while Raymond Torres (Cantano, Puerto Rico) led all players with 11 digs.
The Falcons are now 8-7 on the year after today's loss and 2-6 in GNAC play, while Emmanuel improved to 11-9 overall and 6-3 in the league standings.