Auburndale, Mass. - March 10, 2015 - The Springfield College men's volleyball team registered a season-best .538 hitting percentage en route to a three-set sweep of Lasell College on Tuesday evening in the Lasell College Athletic Center Gymnasium. Springfield won by set scores of 25-20, 25-22, 25-16. 

With the win, the Pride, ranked No. 6 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Rankings, improve to 14-5 on the season, while the Lasers, which was receiving votes in the rankings, fall to 15-5 overall in 2015.

Leading Springfield was a combination of junior outside hitter Greg Woods (Middletown, Conn.) who notched 21 kills hitting at a .567 clip and senior Angel Perez (Naranjito, Puerto Rico), who posted 12 kills on 19 swings, finishing hitting .526 on the evening. Senior setter Keaton Pieper (Dallas, Texas) dished out 43 assists on the evening, while Ricardo Padilla Ayala (San Juan, Puerto Rico) added seven kills on 10 swings in the victory.

For Lasell, Jeffrey Vautrin (Chicopee, Mass.) posted a team-high 15 kills, while Dan Raffol (Natick, Mass.) posted eight kills and six digs in the loss.  

Both sides alternated serves through the first 10 points of the set until Padialla Ayala sparked a 4-0 run for the Pride, including an ace that gave the Pride a 13-8 edge midway through the opening set. Senior middle blocker Jason Mascoe (Uniondale, N.Y.) picked up a pair of kills late in the set to give Springfield a 21-15 lead, before Perez forced match-point with his fourth kill of the set. With a 24-18 lead, the Pride closed out the set on a service error from Lasell.

In the second set, Padilla Ayala gave the Pride an early 8-6 advantage with a kill, before Perez rattled off a pair to give the visitors a 14-10 lead midway through the stanza. Holding an 18-14 lead after another kill from Padilla Ayala, the Pride extended its lead to six off of a kill from Woods, forcing a Laser timeout. After the break, Perez tallied a pair more to close out the set, 25-22.

Springfield dominated the third set early and often as Woods rattled off three-straight kills to give the Pride an 11-8 lead, before the junior extended his teams advantage to seven with a kill to make it 17-10. After Raffol made it 19-13, Springfield with a kill, Woods and Padilla Ayala combined for five kills over the next nine points to finish off the match, taking the third set, 25-16

Springfield will be traveling east again on Wednesday, March 11 as it will take on Division-I Harvard University at 7 p.m. Earlier this season, the Pride fell to Harvard 3-1 in the championship match of the Volleyball Hall of Fame Invitational on February 21.