Albany, NY–The Sage Colleges' men's volleyball team hosted the Nighthawks of Newbury College on Friday night in a non-conference match. The Gators tallied the win, 3-1 (26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 25-23) to record the first career win as Sage men's head coach for Robert Verhayden. The Gators improve to 1-5 on the year, while Newbury drops to 0-2.
Sage's sophomore outside hitter Bailey Cecchi (Agawam, MA/Agawam) racked up a team-best 16 kills with a .281 attack percentage, while sophomore middle hitter Ryan Guyton (Lockport, NY/Lockport) added 11 kills. Cecchi was a perfect with no errors in 28 reception attempts and blasted five aces in the action.
Gator rookie outside Zachary Karl (Central Square, NY/Central Square) had five kills with five digs. Sophomore libero Casey Fitzpatrick (Haverhill, MA/Haverhill) added two digs with 32 setting assists, while sophomore Melvin Tejada (Springfield, MA/Springfield) added 11 digs with four kills. Rookie setter Austin Laverty (Schenectady, NY/Mohonasen) also contributed six digs with two kills and had just one reception error in 16 attempts as the Gators had a .924 reception percentage on the night, while sporting a .157 attack percentage and combined for eight aces.
Newbury's sophomore middle hitter Wade Robidoux (Agawam, MA/Agawam) had 16 kills with a .400 attack percentage in the match. Sophomore outside Joshua Thorne (Oxford, CT/Oxford) finished with eight kills and eight digs with no errors in his 17 reception attempts.
Rookie Luis Aranda (Boyle Heights, CA/Bishop Mora Salesian) connected for 34 setting assists with five digs, two kills and an ace. Sophomore outside hitter Xavier Brown-Rose (Wilbraham, MA/Minnechaug Regional) added five kills with four aces and three digs with three block assists for the Nighthawks.
On Sunday, January 31, Sage will hold a tri-match with Mt. Ida College and Lehman College as the matches are at 11 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in Kahl Gym. In conjunction with the tri-match Sage is holding their Flood the Swamp with White Day and encouraging all fans to wear white and fill the Sage stands with white and possibly win prizes!
