Rivier's Sokunbuth Ly had a good day in the Raiders' doubleheader sweep of Elms. (Courtesy photo by Carlisle Stockton/Rivier Athletics)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Rivier men’s volleyball team downed Elms in both matches of a Saturday doubleheader at Picknelly Arena, coming away with a 3-1 victory in the morning Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) match before sweeping the Blazers in a designated non-conference clash in the afternoon.

The Raiders won by set scores of 23-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-20 and 25-21, 25-13, 25-16 to improve to 9-7 (4-1 GNAC) while the Blazers fell to 3-14 and remain winless in conference action.

Next up, Rivier will head to the West Coast for the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational beginning on Thursday, March 7.

In their 3-1 win, Despite five kills at a .571 clip coming from Sebastian Menchaca, Rivier narrowly fell in the first set to fall into a 1-0 deficit. The opening set of the match was highly-contested with 10 tie scores and two lead changes.

In the second set, the Raiders used a seven-point swing beginning with a Ryan Peace kill to take a 13-7 lead and force Elms into a timeout. From there, Rivier would maintain its lead through the remainder of the set thanks in part to three kills and a pair of aces from Sokunbuth Ly, knotting the match up at one-all. Ly finished the set with five kills while hitting .571 while registering two digs. Chris Lezon notched three blocks in the frame.

In the third game, Rivier held the lead from the early stages until two straight points by the Blazers at match point tied the set 24-24. From there Matthew McCloskey and Ly earned consecutive kills to give the guests a 2-1 edge in the match. Neil Rea handed out 14 assists as the Raiders recorded 17 kills.

Rivier’s largest lead of the fourth came following an Elms timeout as Ly powered home a kill with an assist credited to Racine Camara which put the Raiders up 21-14. From there, Rivier held on for the win, which was capped off by a Rea kill with a helper coming from Peter White. Peace hit .500 in the final set as he produced a team-high four kills.

Rea finished with 34 assists while Justin Barish added 12 as Rivier finished with a team .180 percentage. Ly finished with a team-best 12 kills at a .292 clip in the victory.

In their sweep, Rivier led 11-6 at an Elms timeout in the first set as five different Raiders recorded kills to that point. The Raiders held the lead through the rest of the opening game to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Matthew McCloskey had four kills at a .500 clip to start things off for the visitors.

Both teams traded points at the start of the second before a 9-1 Raiders run forced Elms to burn a timeout trailing 16-8. Rivier dominated the rest of the set, eventually winning by 12 to go up 2-0. Neil Rea registered nine assists as Rivier hit .435 in the second.

Riv got out to an early advantage in the third and powered ahead for a 25-16 win as they limited the Blazers to a -.111 hitting percentage to earn the sweep.

Rea finished with 37 assists as the team hit .360 in its ninth win of the campaign. He also led the team in digs with eight. Peter White was a perfect 16-for-16 on receive while digging five Elms attacks. Chris Lezon recorded five blocks, the most of any player.

MEN’S LACROSSE

ROGER WILLIAMS 19, RIVIER 15

Despite a second-half comeback bid, the Rivier men’s lacrosse team lost in its first road contest in non-conference play at Bayside Field in Bristol, R.I.

The Raiders now sit at 1-1 on the season, while the Hawks moved above .500 to 3-2 overall.

Rivier would record the first two goals of the contest, but Roger Williams would answer back with four-straight goals to take a 4-2 advantage. The Raiders would knot things up at 4-4 with goals coming from Michael Ference and Connor Eck over a span of 1:12. The Hawks would close out the half with five unanswered goals to hop out to a 9-4 lead after 15 minutes.

Roger Williams would outscore Rivier, 6-2, in the second quarter to take a commanding 15-6 lead into the half.

Despite the deficit, the Raiders rallied thanks in part to two man-up goals from Chris Heitmiller and Nicholas Tavares as part of a four-goal third quarter, cutting their deficit to just six.

After Matt Hemmert’s goal just fourteen seconds into the fourth quarter would look like the beginning of the end for the Raiders, Rivier scored three in a row, including back-to-back man-down goals from Noah Zemen and Eck to make it a 17-13 ballgame. The quick-scoring stretch would not prove to be enough for the Raiders who traded pairs of goals with the Hawks down the stretch to fall by four.

Despite the loss, three Raiders notched hattricks, with Heitmiller, Ference, and Eck each scoring three goals.

Zeman’s tally at the 14:35 mark of the fourth was his first collegiate goal.

Samuel Tibbetts subbed into goal just over twenty minutes into the contest to play the remainder of the game and posted nine saves in the setback as Roger Williams put 30 shots on goal to Rivier’s 20.

The Raiders will continue their road series on Wednesday, Mar. 6 as they head to Plymouth St. for a 6 p.m. Granite State showdown at Panther Field.

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