By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
Since losing their first game of the season to Concordia University (Calif.), the Springfield College men’s volleyball team has been off to the races, winning its last five games. In those Pride wins, they’ve only dropped one set – dominating the competition after their trip out west. More of the same took place in Blake Arena on Monday evening, sweeping Elms 25-13, 25-16, 25-18, improving to 5-1 on the season.
“We had a lot of the guys step up,” said head coach Charlie Sullivan. “We still maintained a level of focus. [Elms] played a season together, and that’s the first time that group [Springfield] played together. They were a little behind with rhythm in practice but they maintained great focus and executed [during] game time which is cool.”
The Pride also used tonight’s contest to rest the majority of their regular starters. Dylan Mulvaney, Evan Costley, Chris Rouleau, Sam Levinson and Ricardo Ortiz did not feature. Noah and Ethan Weislo, James Browning and others were moved into the starting lineup for the first time all season.
“I thought it was a good opportunity for them to contribute,” Sullivan said. “They’ve been doing well in practice and we’ve got a lot of things done together.”
Browning had a great game for the Pride logging 14 kills alongside Noah Weislo, who chipped in with 11 of his own. Joel DeCamp had an impressive performance as well, gathering nine kills, while Tyler Simmons led the team in digs with 10 at libero.
“It wasn’t an easy job [and] they did a good job,” Sullivan said.
Springfield started strong – collecting more kills, digs, service aces and a higher hitting percentage than the Blazers. Set one started out with Springfield going on a 5-0 run to start the game. Other streaks in the set consisted of a 6-0 run in which Elms had three attack errors, and another 4-0 run later in the set which saw two more Elms attack errors.
Set two was more of the same for Springfield, with another 5-0 run midway through the set. Ethan Weislo got back to back kills, and Browning added two of his own.
Elms, however, pushed back hard in the third set. The Blazers found themselves with a lead midway through the set at 12-11 with Pedro DeJesus giving them 3 kills in the set. Springfield then gained momentum with Browning tallying up five kills in the set to put the nail in the coffin for Elms.
Springfield College will play their next game at home against the very challenging Vassar College as a part of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame Morgan Classic.
Vassar has given Springfield trouble in the past, handing two of only five losses last season for the Pride, beating them last year in five sets at Blake Arena and four sets at home in Poughkeepsie.
Vassar currently sits as the No. 7 ranked team in the AVCA Division III coaches poll, just one spot below Springfield.
Prior to 2023, Springfield has had a long history of beating Vassar with an overall record of 51-4 dating back to 1989, with all matchups going back to 2020 ending in five sets.
That matchup against Vassar will take place at 6 p.m. in Blake Arena.