Endicott reaches 20-win plateau with 3-0 sweep over Newbury

BROOKLINE, Mass. – The Endicott men's volleyball program achieved their sixth season with at least 20 wins and for the second year in-a-row fought through their New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) regular season schedule without taking a loss after the Gulls handed Newbury a 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-18) loss on Saturday afternoon.

 The Blue and Green are now 20-8 (12-0 NECC) heading into their final tilt before the conference tournament, a match up with #13 MIT on Tuesday, April 9^th at 7:00 pm in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Endicott is 10-13 all-time versus the Engineers having lost three of their last four matches, all in straight sets.  The Gulls defeated MIT 3-2 at home in March of 2011 when the Engineers were ranked #12 in NCAA DIII. 

In today's match against the Nighthawks, junior setter Carter Roche (Clifton Park, N.Y.) dished out 31 assists, had four kills, and three blocks to lead the Gulls.  Roche was connected with freshman outside John Osborne (Freehold, N.J.) for 10 kills and both senior right side Matt Devendorf (Glastonbury, Conn.) and freshman middle Alex Wasik (Milford, Mass.) for eight kills each. 

Endicott, as a team, sported a .360 hitting percentage while limiting their Newbury opposition to just a .133 hitting percentage.  The Nighthawks were led by freshman Jake Powell (Salinas, Calif.) who struck 16 kills with a .417 attack percentage. 

Helping the Gulls defensively at the net was Wasik who led with four assisted blocks while junior middle Mike Coniglione (Glenville, N.Y.), Roche, and Osborne all contributed with a solo block and two assisted blocks each.  Junior libero Aaron Jessee (Okinawa, Japan) tied for a match-high eight digs with Osborne adding seven of his own.