In the second home tri-match of the season, the Springfield College men’s volleyball hosted the Endicott College Gulls and Hunter College Hawks. Springfield kicked off the day with a very convincing win against Endicott, sweeping it in three sets (25-12, 25-18, 26-16), collecting the Pride’s 15th win of the season. The middle game featured Endicott beating Hunter in three sets, before Springfield return to the floor to take on Hunter. Springfield easily dismantled the Hawks in three sets (25-19, 25-13, 25-15), moving to 16-2 on the season. Winning 21 of their last 23 sets, the Pride have assembled a formidable group that are looking to make it back to the National Championship for the first time since 2022, and win for the time since 2018.
“This team is definitely getting better,” said coach Charlie Sullivan. “We’re finding ways to get a little polish so we can be more efficient everyday. They’re growing really well which is fun.”
While Endicott did a good job of hanging with Springfield early on and keeping the game close in the first set, Springfield showed Endicott why it’s the No. 3 ranked team in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Down 7-6, the Pride delivered three consecutive kills from a trio of Jake DesLauriers, Chris Rouleau and Carter Durivage.
After a kill from Gulls’ Jake LaBorde, the Pride scored six unanswered points, with Sam Levinson delivering two aces. DesLauriers, Rouleau and setter Dylan Mulvaney also chipped in with kills, as the Pride extended their lead to 15-8.
Endicott got back on the board again following an attack error from Durivage, the Pride started streaking again, with DesLauriers delivering a kill before contributing back-to-back aces of his own. After a huge block from Mulvaney and Rouleau, Kyle Johnson delivered a kill before DesLauriers finished the streak off with another ace.
Springfield, 21. Endicott, 9.
DesLauriers finished the set with another kill, finishing with five kills and two aces.
“He’s just really competitive,” Sullivan said, “All of our first-years [and transfers] that have come, they’ve added so much competition in our gym. They’ve just made the whole environment better.”
Just like the first set, Endicott stayed in the game with Springfield through the first third or so of the set before Springfield eventually started to pull away. Tied at eight a piece, the Pride went on to score six of the next seven points. The first three all came on service and attack errors from Endicott, before Levinson committed a service error.
The Pride immediately rallied back, with a kill from DesLauriers, followed with an ace. Gulls’ Alexei Kraytman committed an attack error, which helped give Springfield a five point lead. The Pride won the second set by seven, with DesLauriers again producing back-to-back kills late in the set to help propel to a 2-0 lead.
Springfield raced to a 6-2 lead early in the third set on the back of a 4-0 streak with Rouleau, Levinson and Mulvaney. While Endicott answered with three of their own, the Pride still maintained a slight lead over Endicott, slowly and progressively growing their lead. With Springfield holding a 14-11 lead, a Corey Klass service error for the Gulls and an attack error from Aidan Iacovelli helped start another streak, which the Pride have been so accustomed to over the years.
Duriavge delivered another kill with Mulvaney collecting an ace, before another Gull’s attack error from Luke Madson. Springfield clung to a19-11 lead, and cruised to another victory.
After Hunter got swept by Endicott in the middle game of the day, Springfield got right back to work against the Hawks.
The Pride started a majority of their depth pieces to allow some of their bench players to get more playing time. Down 12-10, Springfield scored nine out of ten points, starting on a service error from Hawks Brandon Yeh. DesLauriers responded by delivering back-to-back aces with Joey Priesche collecting a kill.
After an attack error by Kyle Johnson, another 5-0 streak was highlighted with an ace from Cole Kallick, as well as kills from Johnson and Priesche. Two Hunter attack errors were sprinkled in as well, as Springfield cruised to another set to their fourth set victory of the day.
Springfield kept the momentum going into the second set. With the set opening by Hunter committing three attack errors in a row, Springfield went on another 3-0 streak to help propel them to a 7-2 lead. Springfield continued to maintain a five point lead to help get the score to 12-7. Springfield went on another 3-0 streak before Hunter answered with two of their own. Springfield responded with another streak, this time scoring six in a row. Kills by Will Kirchhoff, Priesche and AJ Seveland. The set ended on an ace from Kirchhoff, setting the Pride up for another win.
Similar to set two, Springfield got out to another hot start, with the Hawks committing four five errors in a row. After a service error from George Lucas, the Hawks committed four attack errors in a row to help Springfield get a bigger lead. Now up 10-3, the Pride extended their lead even further, finding themselves up 20-9. The Pride swept Hunter right out of Blake Arena 25-15, as they now sit at 16-2 on the season.
The Pride plays MIT on the road next on Wednesday at 7pm.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Athletics