NEWTON, Mass. – Behind an emotionally charged crowd at Mount Ida Athletic Center, the Mount Ida men's volleyball team captured their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) win of the year with a 3-1 victory over Albertus Magnus College on Wednesday evening.
Senior James Ames (W. Hartford, Conn.) racked up 25 kills as Mount Ida (5-9, 1-2 GNAC) took a two set lead with 25-22 and 25-17 victories and then held off the Falcons (4-3, 0-2 GNAC) as the teams traded 25-21 wins in sets three and four.
Ames was one of three Mustangs to set a new career high, eclipsing his previous mark of 23 kills from a year ago. He was joined by junior Peter Griffenkranz (Deer Park, N.Y.), who turned in a new career high of 18 kills, and senior Jimmy Wessel (DeKalb, Ill.), who recorded a new personal best of 47 assists.
Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) paced the Falcons with a double-double, hitting 14 kills and collecting 12 digs.
Ames and Griffenkranz each posted double-doubles as well and opened the match hitting .474 through the first two games. The Mustangs broke a 22-22 tie in the first set by winning three straight points, capping their win with a service ace by Tyler Shinkle (West Deptford, N.J.).
Griffenkranz turned in 13 digs, while Ames had 12 digs and three service aces to go with his eventual .462 hitting percentage at the end of the night.
Ames had eight kills in the second set and Mount Ida turned an 11-9 deficit into a 19-13 lead en route to a two sets to none victory.
The Falcons got a serving run from Chris Taylor (Bronx, N.Y.) to jump out to a 6-1 advantage in set number three and used three kills from Tharau and two each from Ben Spilka (Reddng, Conn.) and Jeremy Ortiz (Bridgeport, Conn.), who served up 29 assists in the match, as well as 12 attacking errors by the Mustangs to grab a 25-21 win and stave off elimination.
Mount Ida put the match away by staving off a 7-2 run to open the fourth set in which Josh Turner (Trumbull, Conn.) posted two kills for the visitors. The Mustangs got their noses in front with a combined block by Wessel and Brett Southworth (Orange, Conn.) at 11-10, and did not relinquish the lead, though it stayed at no more than three points until Ames's 25th kill of the night delivered the four-point victory.
Freshman TJ Nicholas (Shelton, Conn.) was in on three blocks and recorded nine digs and two service aces, as well as five kills in the victory.
Spilka posted seven each of kills and digs, while Turner gave the Falcons a nine-kill performance.
The Mustangs return to the non-conference person of their schedule this Saturday when they travel to Nashua, N.H. for a tri-match against Lesley and Daniel Webster College.
The Falcons will copy a trip Mount Ida took earlier this season and head to New York to play York College and John Jay on Saturday.