North Andover, MA-- The Merrimack Men's Volleyball team earned their first ever NEC conference win against D'Youville University on Saturday night.
In the first set, the Warriors struck first with the first point of the set. Both teams traded two point runs with each other until the Warriors went on a four-point run taking the lead 9-4. Merrimack scored four more points and had a 19-11 lead with the Saints scoring a point to end the run. The Warriors wasted no time in scoring and won the first set 25-15 taking a 1-0 lead in the series.
Going into the second set, D'Youville wasted no time and scored two points early in the set. Merrimack responded back with a three-point run. In a tight set, both teams would take the lead with each other and tied up 20-20. The Saints went on to score four points with the Warriors scoring three points. D'Youville would take the second set 26-24 and tie up the series 1-1.
The third set, the Warriors wanted to take over the game and score eight points to take the lead 8-3. Both teams again would trade the lead with each other, but Merrimack did not want to waste any time for D'Youville to catch up by going on a six-point run. Later in the set, the Warriors and Saints would trade one point with each other, yet Merrimack took the third set 25-16 and were up 2-1 in the series.
In the fourth set, D'Youville stepped on the gas pedal and took over all of the set with two, three, and five-point runs. The Warriors looked to get back into the game, but the Saints proved that they wanted to win the set and they did 25-16 with the series again tied 2-2.
The fifth and final set, the Warriors striked first early on, leading the set 7-2. The Saints responded with a four-point run to chip away the lead but the Warriors kept pushing forward. As the set got intense the game was tied 11-11, but Merrimack pushed to the finish line to defeat D'Youville in the fifth and final set 15-12 and win the series 3-2.
Notes and Numbers:
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Miles Dewhirst and
Xander Thesz both had 11 kills,
Matthew Motes had 10 kills
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Carson Bashford had 45 assists.
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Kyle Standage led the team in digs with fifteen.
Up Next:
The Warriors head down to New Jersey as they take on Fairleigh Dickinson University on February 24 at 5:00 pm.
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