By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
It’s a matchup that these two teams have been so accustomed to over the years.
Each season, the Vassar College Brewers and the Springfield College Pride play each other twice, once at each school. Tonight, the Pride hosted the Brewers, where they swept the No. 3 ranked team in the country (25-20, 25-17, 25-23). They improved to 11-2 on the season.
While Springfield has historically dominated the Brewers, Vassar has recently been a team that has given them some trouble. They have been nationally ranked almost every year alongside Springfield, and they won both of their games against the Pride in 2023 and also at Vassar last season. For Sullivan, the win feels extremely good, and stood out to him for a few reasons.
“A concentrated effort,” Sullivan said. “Everyone involved [showed] up. So it was really cool.”
The Pride started out hot in the first set, with Giancarlo Carrion delivering back-to-back aces to kick the game off, followed by an attack error from Vassar’s Billy Fan and a kill from Springfield’s Carter Durivage. This put them up 4-0, as Springfield continued to maintain their slight lead throughout the entire set, with Durivage delivering kill after kill, raking up seven total in the first set.
Springfield did have one 3-0 run midway through the first set with kills from Durivage and Chris Rouleau, with an ace added in from Jake DesLauriers. Outside of that run, the two sides mostly traded points throughout. Springfield led Vassar in almost every single offensive category, and eventually got a 1-0 leg up on Vassar after a service error by Armaan Desai.
Moving onto the second set, Springfield got out to their second straight 4-1 lead. Vassar immediately replied on offense, scoring the next three points in a row. Springfield also went on a 3-0 run of their own later in the set, with a kill from AJ Seveland.
Springfield gradually grew their lead, continuing to go toe to toe with Vassar. At the end of the second quarter, Vassar even had more attack attempts than Springfield, but had a considerably lower hitting percentage at .043 compared to Springfield’s .368. Vassar also led Springfield in service errors and attack errors, with Springfield leading in kills and blocks, further showing the Pride’s efficiency.
With Springfield getting up to a six point lead at 20-14, it was smooth sailing from there, as back to back attack errors by Brewers’ Shawn Zheng and kills from Brennen Cutter and Sam Levinson helped give Springfield another set victory, looking to sweep out the Brewers.
Resetting the scoreboard, Springfield and Vassar were deadlocked at four. Still keeping it close with Springfield down 11-10, kills by Dylan Mulvaney and Durivage helped them retake the lead. After exchanging points, Springfield went on another 3-0 run with kills again from Durivage and Levinson. After another kill from Levinson down the line to make it 16-13, Vassar went on a 5-0 run. It started with a service error from Durivage and then a kill from Henry Bonney. Payne Lounsbery delivered an ace. A kill from Gavin Akoto, forced Sullivan to call a timeout, and Tobias Clark delivered a kill right out of the break.
“You gotta be on your game [to beat Vassar],” Sullivan said. “They’re really good, they have really good arms, they do everything well. You gotta work really hard. It’s like a root canal. It’s always good at the end, but it sucks at the beginning.”
Springfield eventually snapped the pointless skid and clawed their way back to a tied game at 21-21. Attack errors by Peter Miocinovic and an ace from Will Kirchhoff helped set them the close set three win, Fan came through with a kill before committing a service error. Now 24-22, just one point away, Zheng delivered a kill to keep it alive for Vassar, but on the next point Durivage came through with another kill to ice the game
The Pride will host Elms College this Wednesday at 6, as they hope to improve to 12-2.