Box Score The men's volleyball team posted a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-14) victory over Albertus Magnus in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest on the road on Sunday afternoon.
Senior J.J. Bessette (Coventry, R.I.) led the way for Johnson & Wales with 38 assists and two service aces while sophomore Kyle MacKnight (Northport, N.Y.) had seven kills and eight digs in the victory. Junior Rakeem Malone (St. Thomas, USVI) and senior Chris Espinola (Derry, N.H.) each recorded seven kills for the Wildcats.
Albertus Magnus was led by Glenn Johnson (Newington, Conn.) with eight kills and four digs while Justin Tharau (Burlington, Conn.) had 16 assists and eight digs in the setback for the Falcons.
JWU controlled the first set, jumping out to a 7-2 lead before an Albertus Magnus timeout. Freshman Kanila Chang (Orlando, Fla.) tallied two kills during that span for the Wildcats. Albertus battled back to cut the lead to three at 9-6 before JWU pushed its lead back up to seven at 17-10. The Wildcats used a kill by sophomore Brendan Baker (Providence, R.I.) to secure the 25-19 victory.
JWU opened the second set with a 9-4 run before another Albertus timeout. The Wildcats jumped out to a double-digit lead at 22-12 on a kill by junior Ryan Kennedy (West Barnstable, Mass.) and then cruised to a 25-16 victory in the set for the 2-0 advantage.
In the final set, JWU jumped out to a 5-0 lead thanks to strong serving by Bessette. The host Falcons attempted a comeback, making the score 14-11 on back-to-back hitting errors by the Wildcats. It would be enough however as JWU went on to win the final set by a score of 25-14.
JWU finished with a remarkable 33.7% hitting percentage, connecting on 46 kills with just 14 errors on 95 attempts. The Wildcats also had seven blocks and seven service aces in the victory.
With the victory Johnson & Wales improves to 10-2 on the year and 1-0 in the GNAC while Albertus Magnus falls to 1-3 for the season and 0-2 in league play. The Wildcats will return to action on Wednesday, February 11th when they host Mount Ida in a GNAC contest starting at 7:00 p.m. The match is the annual Tomorrow Fund match as all monies collected through admissions, donations and the sale of bracelets will go to support the Tomorrow Fund as they help children, and their families, as they battle cancer.
