NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College dropped a 3-0 decision to Daniel Webster College on Wednesday night in their final game before they open their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's volleyball schedule.
The Mustangs (5-6) will begin their GNAC campaign on Wednesday, February 19th when they host Johnsons & Wales at 6:00 pm, back at Mount Ida Athletic Center.
The Eagles took the first set by a 25-19 score, and then outpaced the Mustangs 25-17 in the second set before holding off a Mount Ida charge and sealing the match with another 25-19 victory.
Sophomore Brady Rodriguez (Longwood, Fla.) had seven kills and served four aces to lead Mount Ida, while Daniel Webster was paced by Joe Walz (E. Longmeadow, Mass.) and Joel Hendrix (Kane'ohe, Hawaii), who also racked up seven kills apiece.
The visitors opened up their advantage in the first set with a 6-0 run that was capped by two kills from Ariel Frias (Lawrence, Mass.), who also assisted on 24 points in the match. That spurt gave the Eagles a 16-8 advantage. The Mustangs fought back to pull within two points, thanks to three straight aces by Rodriguez, but Hendrix responded with two aces of his own and sophomore Ryan Howdeshell (Fairbanks, Alaska) closed the game with an ace to give Daniel Webster a 1-0 advantage.
The second set saw a similar run by the Eagles, as they turned a 10-10 game into a 21-15 affair thanks to two of Howdeshell's five kills. Sophomore Jose Vargas (Lawrence, Mass.) also helped in the run and would rack up five kills himself in the game.
Mount Ida fought back from a 5-0 deficit in game three and used two James Ames (West Hartford, Conn.) kills to tie the game at five apiece. The third set would feature six ties, and Mount Ida used Rodriguez's fourth ace to take a 13-12 lead, their only advantage of the set.
Rodriguez registered another kill to bring the score to 21-19 in favor of Daniel Webster, but the Eagles scored the final four points of the game, capping their win with a kill by Kyle Lovering (Manchester, N.H.).
Defensively, Mount Ida was led by sophomore Jimmy Wessel (DeKalb, Ill.), who tallied seven digs and Ames, who had six digs to match his kills total. Sophomore Michael McCullough (Southborough, Mass.) assisted on 10 points, while Rodriguez also set up 9 points and senior Nick Melillo (North Haven, Conn.) added five kills for the Mustangs.
Vargas had two solo blocks and was in on three assists for the Eagles, who also got 2.5 blocks from Frias. Their digs leader was Howdeshell, who picked up seven balls.
Daniel Webster (2-6) also enters their conference schedule next, as they will host Newbury in a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) matchup on Saturday at 1:00 pm.