Men's Volleyball Sweeps Elms

CHICOPEE, Mass. - Elms College sophomore outside hitter Yonalvy Acosta (Holyoke, Mass.) blasted 11 kills, but Newbury College received a 12-kill effort from Max Daley (Cranston, R.I.) and a nine-kill performance from Mark Thomas (Wilbraham, Mass.) to pace the Nighthawks to a 3-0 (30-14, 30-13, 30-20) sweep of the Blazers in Saturday evening's North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) New England Division and New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) men's volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.

With the loss, Elms slips to 2-7 overall, 2-3 NECVA, 1-1 NECC, while Newbury improves to 4-4 on the season, 2-0 NECVA, and 2-0 NECC.

Leading 2-0 in the match, the sides battled to six ties and an 11-11 score before Newbury scored four straight points to take a 15-11 lead. An Acosta kill and a trio of Nighthawks miscues brought the Blazers back to within one, but a 10-6 run extended the Newbury lead to 25-20. From there, the Nighthawks used a pair of kills by James Beck (Havre De Grace, Md.), a kill by Chris Chin (Brockton, Mass.) and a service ace from Sean Copher (Northlake, Ill.) to secure a 30-20 victory in the third set and seal the match.

Newbury opened the contest, by jumping out to a 17-10 lead and used a 9-2 run to push that lead to 26-12 on the strength of a kill and two aces by Beck, a kill from Thomas, a kill and ace from Josh Aberly (Palatine, Ill.) and a kill by Matt Talamantes (Sylmar, Calif.).

Blazers sophomore middle hitter Aaron Coifman (Caracas, Venezuela) halted the run with kill, and junior outside hitter Mike Ryan (Ludlow, Mass.) followed that with a service ace to get Elms to within 10 at 26-14. From there, a Blazers' attacking error, a pair of aces by Danny Kim (Plainview, N.Y.) and a kill by Daley lift the Nighthawks to a 30-14 win in the first frame.

Newbury built a 26-10 lead in the second stanza before sophomore setter Mike Martin (Enfield, Conn.) downed a kill, Coifman stuffed a Nighthawks attack, and Ryan served up an ace to cut the lead to 26-13. From there, an ace from Thomas and two kills by Daley gave Newbury a 2-0 lead in the match.

Acosta hit .304 for the match (11K, 4E, 23TA) and Martin distributed 17 assists in the losing effort, while Acosta registered two solo blocks and assisted on another.

The Newbury attack was paced by Talamantes who handed out 34 helpers, finding Aberly for eight kills and Beck for seven in addition to the 12 and nine from Daley and Thomas.

As a team, the Nighthawks hit at a .475 clip (46K, 8E, 80TA) and served up 14 aces, including four from Beck.

Elms returns to NECVA New England Division and NECC action on Saturday, Feb. 6 when it travels to Southern Vermont College. First-serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Bennington, V.T.

- Game story submitted by Chris Attwood, Director of Sports Information - Elms College