The Mount Ida College men's volleyball team notched their first victory of the season over visiting Lesley University in Northeast Colliegate Volleyball Association (NECVA) action winning 3-0 (30-28, 30-21, and 30-21) . The Mustangs improve to 1-3 overall and stay at 0-1 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) division of the NECVA while the Lynx remain winless on the season at 0-5.
Mount Ida went ahead 3-0 after consecutive errors by the Lynx eventually holding a steady five point advantage up 10-5. The lead was short lived while Lesley went on a 5-0 run to pull within one point down 12-11. The score eventually knotted at 12-12 after a service error by the Mustangs. Points were exchanged for the next couple of sets until the hosts pulled away by a small margin up five (19-14) after a sophomore Thomas Belton (Springfield, MA/Springfield Central) solo block. After a couple of Mustang hitting errors, the Lynx came within one towards the end of game one off a kill at trailing 28-27. Mount Ida eventually held strong and captured the victory 30-28 going ahead 1-0 in the match.
The Mustangs jolted out to a quick 9-6 advantage holding strong after consecutive errors by the Lynx. After a cold streak by the hosts mainly on hitting errors, the visitors got back into the game cutting the lead to one at 13-12. Points were traded up until Mount Ida went on a 4-0 run leading 20-14 after another error by the Lynx. The Mustangs ultimately dominated for the rest of game two winning 30-21. Senior captain Bryan McMenamin (Warminster, PA/William Tennent) added two service aces for points 28 and 29 to seal off the victory. The Mustangs took the outright 2-0 match lead.
Game three was all Mount Ida in the opening up 13-6 after a kill by McMenamin. The Lynx powered a 5-0 lead compiled with a handful of Mustang errors gave the visitors a chance to get back into the game trailing 17-13. The hosts started to get sloppy and give up easy points while Lesley capitalized and pulled within two at 22-20. Mount Ida got things together and rode out an 8-1 run to capture the 30-21 game three win and the 3-0 match victory, good for their first of the season.
The Mustangs were led by Belton with 14 kills throughout the match while McMenamin tallied eight kills and five digs. Freshman McCoy Arnoux (Brockton, MA/Brockton) notched four service aces.
The Lynx were led by sophomore Zachary Almeida-Beers (Rehoboth, MA/Dighton-Rehobth) with six kills while senior Clayton Janer (Guilford, CT/Guilford) tallied nine assists. Sophomore Tyler Reeves (Coventry, CT/Coventry) notched 19 digs.
Mount Ida will host its first NECVA GNAC division game versus Emerson College this coming Wednesday starting at 7:00 p.m.