SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - On Saturday afternoon at Blake Arena, the No. 20 MIT men's volleyball team rallied from down 2-1 to defeat Nichols in five sets. The Engineers fell to hosts and No. 7 Springfield in straight sets earlier in the afternoon.
THE BASICS:
- Scores:
- Springfield 3, MIT 0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-18)
- MIT 3, Nichols 2 (26-24, 25-27, 21-25, 25-21, 15-7)
- Records: No. 20 MIT (8-4 Overall), No. 7 Springfield (7-1 Overall), Nichols (4-8 Overall)
HOW IT HAPPENED vs. SPRINGFIELD
- Set 1: Springfield held an 8-5 lead before three-straight Pride attack errors tied the match at eight. MIT gained a 13-12 lead off two more Springfield errors before the Pride went on a 5-1 run to pull ahead 17-14. An ace from junior Ben Volokh (Studio City, Calif.) got MIT to within 20-18 but the Pride held on for the 25-20 win.
- Set 2: MIT scored five-straight points to go up 11-10. The Pride slowly chipped away, and a 7-0 run secured the 25-16 set win for the hosts.
- Set 3: A kill from Joey Preische (Penfield, N.Y.) put Springfield in the lead 16-12, and a 5-2 run gave Springfield the 25-18 win.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Senior Grant Oh (Irvine, Calif.) posted a match-high 10 kills. Volokh and first year Braeden Baker (Phoenix, Ariz.) had five each.
- Senior Riley Oh (Phoenix, Ariz.) contributed 17 assists and junior Kevin Windisch (Placentia, Calif.) had a match-high eight digs.
HOW IT HAPPENED vs. NICHOLS
- Set 1: Trailing 19-15, MIT scored four-straight points, capped by a Volokh ace to tie the match. The teams went back-and-forth before a kill from first year Kristof Spellen (New Rochelle, N.Y.) and two attack errors by Nichols gave the Engineers the set win, 26-24.
- Set 2: First year Hansen Fan (Center Valley, Pa.) gave the Engineers a 23-20 lead, but the Bison went on a 4-0 run to get set point. Volokh held off Nichols with a kill but back-to-back kills from graduate student Jack Normandin (Clifton Park, N.Y.) gave Nichols the 27-25 win.
- Set 3: After the Engineers generated three-straight points to pull to within one at 19-18, Nichols scored the next four to pull out to a 23-18 lead and went on to take the second set 25-21.
- Set 4: Espinoza gave MIT a 14-13 lead with an ace, but Nichols responded with three-straight to take a 16-14 lead. Grant Oh kick started a 7-0 run, capped by an ace by Riley Oh that gave the Engineers a 23-18 lead. Spellen tied the match at two sets with his kill that gave MIT the 25-21 set four win.
- Set 5: MIT raced out to a 5-1 lead capped by a Grant Oh kill. Nichols could not chip away at the lead as Spellen secured the win with his 10th kill of the match which gave the Engineers the 15-7 victory.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Grant Oh led MIT with 18 kills. Spellen added 10 kills and Michael Rini finished with nine.
- Riley Oh posted three aces and 44 assists in the match. Volokh also had three aces in the match.
- Windisch collected 11 digs.
UP NEXT:
- The Engineers return to the court on Saturday, February 15 when they host a tri-match with St. John Fisher and Russell Sage College. MIT opens play with a UVC match against the Cardinals at 12:00 PM followed by a 4:00 PM contest against the Gators.
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