MIT Men's Volleyball Blanked By No. 15 Endicott

Recap, photo courtesy of MIT

THE BASICS:

- Score: No. 15 Endicott College 3, MIT 0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-13)

- Records: MIT (15-8); No. 15 Endicott College (19-3)

- Location: Beverly, Mass. (MacDonald Gymnasium)

- The Lead: The MIT men's volleyball team slid to 15-8 overall as the Engineers fell to No. 15 Endicott College in straight sets by scores of 25-22, 25-19, 25-13 in non-conference action on Thursday evening.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

- After back-to-back service aces by Bryn Lipton for the Gulls to make the score 12-7, the Engineers slowly chipped away at the deficit and eventually tied the score at 21-21 on blocks by Andrew Hall (Lynnfield, Mass.) and Tavish Smith (Laguna Beach, Calif.). The host Gulls, however, scored four of the final five points of the opening set to win it by a 25-22 score. Endicott used four kills and a service ace down the stretch to win the first set.

- MIT took the first three points of the second set on three Endicott errors before the Gulls went on a 9-3 to take a 9-6 lead. The Engineers were able to cut Endicott's lead back to two three different times, but the Gulls maintained their lead as they used kills by Jacob Newman and Jeremy Doski to win the second 25-19.

- The host Gulls put the match away early in the third set as back-to-back kills by Donovan Dey put Endicott up 9-2 early on. Back-to-back errors gave MIT its sixth and seventh points to cut the deficit back to eight, but Endicott used two kills and two MIT errors to win in straight sets and take the third 25-13.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

- Smith posted a match-high 11 kills for the Engineers, while junior Skyler Kaufman (Needham, Mass.) hit .385 with seven kills of his own.

- MIT junior setter Yize Dong (Moraga, Calif.) handed out a match-high 23 assists. Defensively, both Dong and classmate Parker Hall (Lomita, Calif.) tallied seven digs apiece. Kaufman and A. Hall both added single solo blocks to the Engineers' efforts.

UP NEXT:

- MIT will close its 2018 campaign with a trip to western Massachusetts on Saturday, April 7 for a tri-match with No. 1 Springfield College and Ramapo College. The Engineers will play Ramapo at 3:00 p.m. before taking on host and top-ranked Springfield at 5:00 p.m.