By Hayden Choate
@ChoateHayden
The Springfield College men’s volleyball team took care of business on Tuesday night as they swept No. 7 St. John Fisher College in straight sets.
The Cardinals came into Blake Arena with confidence after knocking off the No. 1 team, NYU, in five sets on Saturday.
However, that didn’t phase the Pride. They won the first set 25-18, the second set 26-24 and the third set 25-19.
“We prepared just by doing normal stuff, working hard in the gym, staying together as a group, working on our communication things like that,” Springfield head coach Charlie Sullivan said.
Brennen Brandow who had 12 kills in the Pride’s sweep over Wentworth on Saturday, led the team with 17 kills on Tuesday while first-year Jarrett Anderson smashed 14 kills en route to the win.
“(With a) really good opponent on the other side it was pretty much all about taking smart swings and making plays.” Anderson said.
The match featured nine lead changes which all came in the second set. Springfield had to pitch a late comeback as they were down 24-23 when Sullivan decided to call his final timeout of the set.
“We just talked about what they were doing really well, they were putting a lot of pressure on us, especially in game two,” Sullivan said.
“I think that was probably the turning point in the match, if we had lost that second set, hadn’t made some big plays, we’d still be out there and who knows what would be going on right now.”
St. John Fisher could not find any source of momentum after the very close second set win by Springfield. The Pride came out to a roaring 13-6 lead in the third set and showed no signs of stopping, forcing the visitors to call a timeout.
The Cardinals could not cut the lead down to less than six after the timeout as Springfield kept attacking. Anderson and Brandow combined for six kills in the third set following the Cardinals’ timeout.
“It’s important for us to play our game, play to our potential and obviously we were able to do that tonight,” Anderson said.
Springfield who was ranked No. 1 in the latest AVCA rankings has two road matches ahead of them. The first is at 6:00 p.m. against Hunter on Friday and the other is on Saturday at Elms at 7 p.m..
Photo courtesy of Hayden Choate