New York, N.Y. - January 27, 2017 - The Springfield College men's volleyball team earned a three-set victory at Baruch College on Friday evening in the ARC Arena, winning by the set scores of 25-20, 25-17, 25-11.

The Pride, which is currently the top-ranked team in Division III in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III National Coaches Poll, improved to 4-1, while Baruch remained winless at 0-4.

Luis Garcia Rubio (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) led Springfield to a .360 hitting percentage after handing out 33 assists in the victory.  Luis Vega (Corozal, Puerto Rico) paced Springfield with 10 kills at an impressive .714 clip to go along with a team-best eight digs, while Jonathan Rodriguez Lopez (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) chipped in eight kills of his own.

A solo block by Vega gave Springfield an early 4-1 lead to start the match, and after the Bearcats closed within one twice, Vega crushed an overpass kill to make it 8-4.   Sean Zuvich (San Pedro, Calif.) later elevated for a solo stuff to push the Pride's lead to 16-10, which forced the Bearcats into a timeout and the Pride's lead grew to 19-12 on a kill by Rodriguez Lopez.  Consecutive attack errors brought the hosts within 19-15, but Springfield would ease its way to a 25-20 first set win, getting five kills from Vega to pace the attack. 

Springfield strung together five-straight points, with Trevor Mattson (Redlands, Calif.) delivering a pair of kills as the Bearcats burned a timeout trailing 10-5.   Vega would later hammer a ball in system for a 20-14 lead by the visitors and Ricardo Padilla Ayala (San Juan, Puerto Rico) forced the hosts into a timeout when his cross court kill in transition made it 23-16.   Springfield would eventually take the set, 25-17. 

The Pride stormed out to an 8-1 lead to start the third set after an ace by Garcia Rubio.  Out of a Baruch timeout, Springfield kept up the momentum, getting another block from Padilla Ayala and Joseth Irizarry Feliciano (Adjuntas, Puerto Rico) to take a 10-1 cushion.  An ace from Shaun Ermi (Rush, N.Y.) allowed the Pride's lead to ballon to 20-6, and after Andrew Tsororos (Hauppauge, N.Y.) finished off a long rally for match point, Irizarry Feliciano registered an ace to seal the sweep at 25-11.

Springfield will remain New York City for a tri-match and will battle sixth-ranked NYU and Mount Saint Vincent at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility starting at 2 pm.