Tuesday, January 18, 2011 (Newton, Massachusetts) – The Mount Ida College men's volleyball team dropped their season home opener to visiting Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opponent Emerson College, 3-1, by scores of 21-25, 27-25, 21-25, and 19-25 Tuesday evening in Newton, Massachusetts. The Mustangs fall to an overall record of 0-1, 0-1 in the GNAC, while the visitors capture their first victory of the season improving to 1-0, 1-0 in conference competition.
The Mustangs jumped out to a 4-1 game one advantage capped off on a solo block by junior hitter Geoff Carlson (Falls Village, CT/Housatonic). The visitors came back to tie the score at 5-5 after a couple of Mount Ida errors along the net. The hosts followed pulling ahead by five up 12-7 coupled with consecutive errors by the Lions. A 5-0 run by the visitors knotted the score at 12-12 after a service ace by Lion sophomore Nadav Swarttz (Newton, MA/Newton South). The Mustangs would ultimately pull ahead by four (18-14) following a sophomore Spencer Hastings (Orlando, FL/Timber Creak) kill and another visitor error. The score would tie twice more at 18-18 and 20-20 until Emerson started to pull away scoring the final four points on two service aces by senior Garrett Mercer (North Kingstown, RI/Yorktown) and two Mount Ida errors. The Lions took game one 25-21 leading 1-0 in the match.
Game two the visitors started strong leading 11-5 after a slew of costly Mount Ida errors. The Mustangs crawled back into the competition powering an 8-0 run to capture a quick 13-11 advantage after another solo block by Carlson. It went back and forth for the next handful of points knotting the score five times until the visitors pulled ahead by two (20-18) capped off on a solo block by Mercer. The squads went through the final sets with no more than one point separating each other. After a knotted score at 25-25 the Mustangs notched the final two points off a solo block by Hastings and a visiting error to capture the 27-25 game two win knotting the score at 1-1 for the match.
The action went back and forth for the ladder part of game three with the visitors leading 11-8 on more costly errors putting them back in the hole again. The Mustangs eventually woke up and jumped back in the action after a 7-4 run knotting the score at 15-15 after a solo block by senior middle block Thomas Belton (Springfield, MA/Springfield Central). It remained neck-and-neck up until the Lions squeaked out a small three point (23-20) lead following a Frank O'Sullivan (Ottawa, Ontario/E.S.P. De La Salle) kill. The visitors went on to score the final two points of game three taking a 25-21 victory to lead 2-1 in the match.
The Mustangs held on for the bulk of game four with the score knotted multiple times throughout the beginning of the set with Mount Ida holding a one point lead up 12-11 after a visiting error. The host advantage did not last long while the Lions jumped ahead 21 -16 on after multiple errors by the Mustangs. Although Mount Ida closed within three points (21-18) towards the end, the Lions rode a 4-1 run to close out game four 25-19 capturing a 3-1 GNAC win good for their first of the season.
Mount Ida was led by Belton with 15 kills, two solo blocks, and three block assists. Hastings was also impressive with eight kills and four total blocks along with seven digs and three service aces. Senior setter Shane Wilson (Gloucester, MA/Gloucester) added 26 assists and nine digs.
O'Sullivan powered the offense for the visitors with 12 kills while junior setter Steve Selnick (Cheshire, CT/Cheshire) dished out 32 assists. Sophomore Justin Chun (Honolulu, HI/Panahuu) added eight digs.
The Mustangs will travel to GNAC foe Emmanuel College this coming Thursday for another conference match with the start slated for 7:00 p.m.