BOSTON, Mass. – Mount Ida sophomore James Ames (West Hartford, Conn.) recorded a career-high 19 kills on Tuesday night, but it wasn't enough to stop Wentworth Institute of Technology from scoring a 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-9) victory over the Mustangs in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play.
Senior Ross Burdett's (Needham, Mass.) six kills, .600 attack percentage, and three aces helped pace the Leopards, who improve to 15-6 overall and 4-1 in GNAC play while the Mustangs slip to 7-12 (1-5 GNAC).
Ames made just two errors on 30 attempts, hitting .567, while senior Nick Schibi (Torrington, Conn.) added nine kills and hit at a .375 clip.
Mustang senior Nick Melillo (North Haven, Conn.) used a block to tie the first set of the night at eight points apiece. Wentworth then took the next four points to take a 12-8 lead. A kill by Wentworth freshman Alex Potts (Niverville, N.Y.), followed by an ace from classmate Jake Reed (Arvada, Colo.) extended the Leopards lead to 15-10.
After a Wentworth error, Potts recorded an ace and Burdett beat the Mustang defense from the left side to give the Black & Gold an 18-12 advantage. Mount Ida fell behind 20-13, but took five of the next six points to get within three at 21-18.
Melillo got the Mustangs within two at 22-20 with an ace of his own, but Potts rescued the Leopards with back-to-back blocks to make the score 24-20. Brady Rodriguez (Longwood, Fla.) pulled Mount Ida within two, 24-22, with an ace, but followed with a serving error which gave Wentworth the 25-22 win.
Rodriguez piled up 27 assists in the game, while freshman Collin Ritter (Feeding Hills, Mass.) had 18 assists in the victory.
With the teams knotted up at five in the second set, freshman Sam Pisker's (Mullica Hill, N.J.) second kill of the set gave Wentworth a 6-5 advantage. The Leopards extended their lead to 10-7 after a Reed kill from the left-side. Sophomore Dennis Miranda (Hialeah, Fla.) beat the Wentworth defense to get Mount Ida within one at 10-9, but the Leopards then scored three straight points to take a 13-9 lead.
The Mustangs scored two straight points before the Leopards responded with a Burdett kill, a Brian Mann (East Freetown, Mass.) block and a Potts kill to extend their lead to 18-12. Mount Ida hung around once again by taking three straight points to get the score to 18-15, but Reed and Potts responded with a pair of kills.
Sophomore Bill Shimkus (Sudbury, Mass.) stepped to the service line and dialed up an ace to get the Leopards to 24 and Reed ended the match 25-17 with another kill.
Shimkus continued his hot serving in the final set and set the Leopards up with a 3-0 advantage. Wentworth would then extend their lead to 9-1 on a Burdett ace in the middle of a 6-0.
Burdett followed his ace with two more and the Leopards had an 11-1 lead, which they extended to 21-7 by controlling the service line with a number of aces.
To go along with Burdett's six kills, freshmen Reed and Potts added six of their own. Reed added two digs and two aces while Potts had two blocks and two aces and Pisker chipped in with five kills and a dig.
Mount Ida visits Rivier on Thursday at 8:00 pm, while Wentworth next travels to Emmanuel on the same day.