Boston, Mass. – The Albertus Magnus College men's volleyball team fell on the road to Emmanuel, 3-0, on Tuesday evening in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action inside the Emmanuel College Gymnasium. The hosts completed the season sweep of AMC with a 27-25, 25-18 and 25-9 triumph on their home floor.
With the loss, the Falcons move to 5-10 on the year and 0-8 in league play, while the Saints netted their fourth straight victory to improve to 15-9 overall and 5-5 in conference matches.
Senior outside hitter Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) paced the Albertus Magnus attack with nine kills and one service ace, while classmate Ben Spilka (Redding, Conn.) and junior middle hitter Josh Turner (Trumbull, Con.) both added five kills apiece. Defensively, Spilka had a game-high 11 digs and Tharau recorded seven of his own. At the net, Turner had two solo blocks and one block assist.
Albertus Magnus scored the first four points of the match before freshman Erik English (Simi Valley, Calif.) earned two kills in a row to cut the lead in half. The teams then traded points, and Albertus hung on to a 10-8 lead, until EC took advantage of a series of attack errors and jumped out to a 13-10 lead, forcing an AMC timeout.
After a service error by senior Michael Felix (Mission Hills, Calif.) tied the match at 17, the Falcons used three more EC attack errors to open up a 20-17 lead, and force coach Bori May to use a timeout. From there, the teams swapped points back-and-forth until English used a kill and service ace to tie the set at 24-24.
A bad set by AMC freshman Jeremy Ortiz (Bridgeport, Conn.) and a kill by Spilka brought the score to 25-25, and then two consecutive kills by senior Drew Jordan (Braintree, Mass.) powered the Saints to a 27-25 win in the opening set.
The Falcons opened the second set with another strong run, leading 6-1 and 12-7, but the Saints answered with five straight points to tie things up at 12, and then, when the score was knotted at 18, scored seven points in a row to end the set.
At 18-18, freshman Kevin Orsley (San Jose, Calif.) picked up a kill to give the Saints the lead, and then Wingard took over, hammering four straight service aces to extend the lead to 23-18. A kill by Hess and an attack error by Tharau closed out the set in favor of the hosts.
The final set was dominated by Emmanuel, as the home team led 13-3 midway through the frame. After a brief Albertus run, the Saints scored 10 of the last 11 points and ended the match on Wingard's sixth kill of the night.
English finished with 11 kills, five aces, and seven digs in the win. Hess and Wingard posted hitting percentages of .571 and .455, respectively, in limited action.
As a team, AMC registered 23 kills, 35 digs and four blocks.
Albertus Magnus returns to action on Saturday, March 26, with a road GNAC tri-match versus Johnson & Wales and Rivier in the Ocean State.
