Gulls grab first place, thump No. 8 Newbury
Feb. 19, 2009
BEVERLY, Mass. - Endicott College posted game scores of 30-19, 30-22 and 30-28 to sweep its way past eighth-ranked Newbury College, grabbing sole possession of first place in the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association's New England division. The win improves the Gulls to 13-7 overall and keeps them perfect in NECVA New England play at 8-0. The loss dips Newbury to 16-3 and 5-1 in divisional play.
Endicott came out flying in the first set, quickly grabbing a 9-3 lead on back-to-back kills from A.J. Witkofsky (Scotia, N.Y.). The Gulls would extend the advantage to 10, 20-10, as James Sliva (Monroe, Conn.) took a nice pass from Ben Foster (Penfield, N.Y.) and placed an attack just inside the line for the kill. The Blue and Green would coast to an easy 30-19 win in the opening game.
It was much of the same in the second set as Endicott sprinted out to a 13-7 lead. Newbury would fire back with an 8-2 run behind the strong play of James Beck (Havre De Grace, Md.) to even the score at 15-all. The Gulls then closed out the game with a dominating 15-7 spurt that featured four kills from A.J. Witkofsky, taking the set 30-22.
The Nighthawks refused to go away quietly and were able to grab their first lead of the night, 4-3, in the early moments of the third game. The back-and-forth nature of the set continued into the middle of the game, where the two teams found themselves gridlocked at 13-all. It was Endicott, however, that began to pull away down the stretch, taking a commanding 26-20 lead on a kill from B.J. Worth (Londonderry, N.H.). Newbury showed its late resiliency as Mark Thomas (Wilbraham, Mass.) strung together consecutive kills and then buried an ace to help knot the game at 27-all. With the momentum shifting in the visitor's direction, an Endicott timeout attempted to halt the late rally. The two sides traded kills (28-28), but then it was the Endicott front line that sealed the win as James Sliva and Jordan Durant (Honolulu, Hawaii) combined on back-to-back assisted blocks to take the win for Endicott, 30-28.
A.J. Witkofsky led the way with a match-high 20 kills, swinging at an impressive .600. John Emery (Westford, Mass.) was also strong upfront, notching 12 kills in the win. Ben Foster dished out 49 assists while Matt Carroll (West Hartford, Conn.) and Dan Coleman (Millis, Mass.) notched 10 and nine digs, respectively. The Gulls ended the night with 12.5 total team blocks.
Newbury got 14 kills from Mark Thomas, while James Beck and Bryan McDermand (Palatine, Ill.) each had 11 kills in the loss. Matt Talamantes (Sylmar, Calif.) had 37 assists and Joshua Aberly (Palatine, Ill.) had eight digs.
Endicott returns to action on Saturday as the Gulls play Emmanuel and Lasell in a tri-match in Boston, Mass. Newbury retakes the court on Saturday against NECVA's top-ranked team, Rivier.