Wells Men's Volleyball Edged By Wildcats

The Wells College men's volleyball team fell in a five-set tussle against visiting SUNY Polytechnic Institute on Tuesday, March 28 at the Schwartz Athletic Center in Aurora, N.Y. Set scores were 29-27, 20-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-9.

Tuesday's victory for SUNY Poly meant the teams split the season series, with each victory being earned in five sets by the visiting team. Wells defeated SUNY Poly 3-2 back on Feb. 15. The teams are tied for third in the North Eastern Athletic Conference standings with 9-4 conference records. Wells is 15-11 overall and SUNY Poly is 14-13 overall. The top four teams in the NEAC qualify for the conference playoffs. Medaille College stands fifth with a 7-5 NEAC record.

The back-and-forth opening set went to SUNY Poly by a 29-27 score. Wells had 18 kills and hit .306 in the set, but SUNY Poly had 19 kills and hit .378 to pull out the close victory.

In the second set, Wells used a surge in the middle part of the set to build a six-point lead and went on to a five-point victory. Wells started the third set with five straight points and never looked back in a 25-14 win.

Wells led the fourth set 8-3, but SUNY Poly climbed back into the set and went on a 12-4 run to hold a 15-12 advantage. SUNY Poly led 22-21, but Wells scored two straight points to take the lead. SUNY Poly scored the last three points of the set to force a deciding fifth set.

SUNY Poly built an early 5-2 lead. Wells pulled to within two points at 8-6, but Poly rattled off six straight points and went on to the win.

Brannon Perdicho had 18 kills and Caden O'Loughlin had 15 kills. Scott Litvin had 32 assists and Josh Undari had 15. Trysten McLaughlin led Wells with four service aces. Mike Hartman had 10 digs. O'Loughlin had one solo block and two block assists.

Wells wraps up conference play this weekend with a NEAC crossover weekend hosted by D'Youville College. The final regular season match is a home match against Bard on Saturday, April 8 at 4 p.m.