NEWTON, Mass. - With a trip to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship match on the line, the Emmanuel men's volleyball team fell short of advancing, falling to the No. 20 Lasell Lasers in straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-18), on Thursday night in the GNAC Semifinals from the Lasers Athletic Center.
The win for the Lasers moves them into the championship at 23-7 while the Saints season comes to a close at 19-12.
After splitting the first six points of the opening set to a 3-3 tie, Lasell took control with the help of an 11-4 scoring run to take the lead, 14-7. Emmanuel managed to close within two late in the set, but a first-set-ending run of 6-1 by the Lasers handed them a 25-17 set win.
Similar to the opening set, the second set started with a battle for momentum before the Lasers struck again with another 6-1 run, pushing ahead to a 12-8 lead. Lasell held off any attack by the Saints through the middle of the frame until a three-point surge pulled the Saints within two, 23-21. But the nation's No. 20 team dug in and clinched the set on their first set point in a 25-22 win.
In the third, another Lasers run turned out to make all the difference. With the Saints leading 7-6 early in the third, the Lasers found their final push of the night with a 14-7 scoring spree, overtaking the Saints to lead 20-14. The Saints never got any closer than five as Theo Zaharewicz finished off the match with a kill, sending the Lasers to the championship match with a 25-18 set win.
Saints junior
Trey Guest led the team with 10 kills to go along with seven digs. Fellow junior
Michael Shelley added nine kills for the Saints while seniors
Aiden McGowan and
Louis Da Silva both added six kills each.
Zaharewicz led all players with a match-high 11 kills, hitting .345 from the floor.
Benjamin Walinjom and
Teddy Teraszkiewicz added nine kills a piece for the Lasers.
The Lasers head into the GNAC Championship and face the No. 12 Wentworth Leopards on Saturday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. at the Nelson Recreation Center. This is the third straight season the Lasers and Leopards will meet for the GNAC Championship and the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
