BEVERLY, Mass. – The #3 seed Regis College men's volleyball team upset the #2 seed Southern Vermont College Mountaineers in a five-set thriller (14-25, 25-19, 29-27, 18-25, 15-13) during the New England Collegiate Conference Semifinals inside MacDonald Gymnasium on the campus of Endicott College Friday night. The win pushes the Pride to 12-15 overall and 8-5 in NECC play.
The victory was the Pride's first NECC Tournament win in program history and Regis reaches their first ever conference championship in the sixth-year of the program's existence.
#1 Endicott (16-11) will face #3 Regis (12-15) with the 2015 NECC Championship and automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament on the line on Saturday, April 11th at 3:00 p.m. inside MacDonald Gymnasium. You can follow the game with live stats and video here.
A balanced offensive attack that saw six players record at least five kills including three that surpassed double-digit kills helped Regis advanced past Southern Vermont.
Pride sophomore outside Sean Bisnett (Oxnard, Calif.) led the charge with 16 kills on a .314 hitting percentage, nine digs, and three block assists while setters Joe Hanrahan (Coventry, R.I.) and Ryan Husher (Camarillo, Calif.) shared the setting duties with 26 and 24 assists, respectively.
Freshman Josiah Roque (Oxnard, Calif.) and Marcos Aguirre (Norwalk, Calif.) each had 10 kills with just three hitting errors. Along with his 24 assists, Husher recorded nine kills, eight digs, and five total blocks for the outstanding overall effort. Freshman middle Brett Krahl (Santa Clarita, Calif.) added seven kills and sophomore middle Brandon Tordoff (Coventry, R.I.) chipped in five more kills with an impressive eight block assists.
Southern Vermont, who exited the conference playoffs in the semifinal round for the second straight season, got a match-high 23 kills out of their freshman star Stewart Ramirez (Los Angeles, Calif.) on a .245 hitting percentage with 12 digs and two block assists. Senior outside Keven Walley (Pico Rivera, Calif.) was a force with 19 kills (.289) with nine digs while senior Joey Dighton (Riverside, Calif.) had 10 kills and four blocks in the loss.
Setting up the Mountaineers offense was senior setter Herson Canta (Lagunitas, Calif.) who amassed 63 assists, nearly 13 assists per set, with six digs. Tino Escovedo (Fresno, Calif.) had a match-high 16 digs, two more than his counterpart Renato Rosas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) from Regis.
Release Courtesy of Endicott College Sports Information