NEWTON, Mass. - Emmanuel men's volleyball, facing their fourth top-20 ranked opponent of the season, fell on Thursday night, 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19), to the No.15 Lasell Lasers, in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play from the Lasers Athletic Center. The victory moves Lasell to 9-1 (1-0 GNAC) while the loss drops the Saints to 5-4 (1-1 GNAC).

After a close start to the opening set, a five-point run for the Lasers opened up a 14-7 lead, from which the Saints couldn't recover. Lasell went on to hit a match-best .522 in the first set, committing no errors while totaling 12 kills on 23 attempts, in a 25-16 first set win.

The Saints bounced back in the second, coming from behind late in the set to tie the match at 1-1. A 4-0 run late in the set by the Lasers set up what appeared to be a win for the home side, giving them a 21-18 lead, but the Saints recovered by winning six points in a row to overtake the Lasers. Two kills by senior Jyles Amirault, a service ace by senior Louis Da Silva, and errors by the Lasers contributed to the 6-0 spree. Three points later, junior Trey Guest capped off the set with a kill to give the Saints the 25-23 win.

Clutch, late points in the third set helped Lasell to a 2-1 set lead after winning the third 25-22. Tied at 22-22, kills by Dexter Thomas and Theo Zaharewicz, to go along with an Emmanuel attack error, gave the Lasers the last three points of the frame in the 25-22 set win.

In the fourth, the Lasers used a similar run to that in the first set, going on a 7-0 scoring stretch that boosted their lead from four to 11, as they held a 17-6 edge thanks to the run. The Saints closed to within five on multiple occasions but never threatened the Lasers lead, as Lasell took home the set 25-19.

For the Lasers, Jasper Schultz finished with a team-high 13 kills while Teddy Teraszkiewicz finished with 11 kills and four service aces. Thomas and Carter Phillips both had five blocks in the win.

Saints junior Michael Shelley finished with a match-high 18 kills while hitting .233 from the floor. Amirault and Guest both added 11 kills in the loss as Amirault recorded the night's only double-double thanks to a match-best 10 digs.

The Saints return to action on Wednesday, Feb. 5, as they meet their fifth nationally-ranked opponent of the season, traveling to No. 9 Wentworth for a 7:00 p.m. conference match. The Lasers also return on Feb. 5 as they finish a three-match homestand with the No. 17 MIT Engineers at 7:00 p.m.