Auburndale, Mass. – February 21, 2024 – The fourth-ranked Springfield College men's volleyball team grinded out a 3-2 win over No. 20 Lasell University by set scores of 25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 21-25, 15-10 on Wednesday evening inside the Lasell Athletic Center.

Springfield, which has now won 13 straight matches, improved to 13-1 overall, while Lasell dipped to 6-7 on the season.

First-year Sam Levinson (La Grange, Ill.) guided the Springfield offense with a career-best 19 kills and hit at a .310 clip to go along with six aces, eight digs and two assists in the win. Junior Joel DeCamp (Simi Valley, Calif.) hit .786 with a career-high 11 kills, while sophomore Ethan Walters (St. Louis, Mo.) notched ten kills and four digs. Sophomore Evan Costley (Simi Valley, Calif.) added six kills, five aces and eight digs, while sophomore Dylan Mulvaney (Reston, Va.) notched 46 assists, 11 digs and two solo blocks. First-year Ricardo Ortiz (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) tallied a career-best 18 digs tonight as well for Springfield. As a team, the Pride limited Lasell to just a .175 hitting percentage on the night.

In the first, Springfield scored four of the first five points of the match before Lasell scored five straight points for a 6-4 edge. The score was even four times with the final time coming at 11-11 as a kill from Levinson gave the Pride a 13-11 lead – a lead that Springfield wouldn't relinquish. Both teams traded points the rest of the way before a swing from Brennan Cutter (Trumbull, Conn.) and an ace from Costley secured the first set 25-19.

Both teams hit under .200 in the second, but Levinson recorded five of Springfield's 11 kills in the stanza. The set featured eight ties and four lead changes. Late in the set down, 22-19, a swing by Walters and a block by Chris Rouleau (Bay Shore, N.Y.) pulled the Pride within one at 22-21, but two Springfield errors and a kill by Jordan Shinaut gave Lasell the second, 25-23.

After both teams traded points to open the third, a 9-3 run by Springfield which featured three aces and kills from Walters, Levinson and Rouleau gave the Pride a 10-5 advantage. As a team, Springfield hit .400 in the set powered by four kills from Walters, three from both Rouleau and Walters and two from DeCamp. Up 13-10, Springfield used a 7-3 run that featured solo kills from four different student-athletes for the 20-13 advantage. Back-to-back aces from Levinson as well as swings by Walters and Rouleau secured a 25-16 set three win for the Pride.

Springfield hit a match-best .500 (13-1-24) in the fourth, but in the tightly contested stanza that saw the score even on ten occasions, it was the Lasers who came out with the 25-21 victory. A service error by Lasell gave Springfield a 21-20 edge late, but the lasers used two kills from Brendan Joyce, two aces from Shinaut and a Springfield error to send the match to a fifth set – the second straight five setter for the Pride.

DeCamp powered Springfield's offense in the fifth with four of the Pride's eight kills. Both teams traded points to open before a 5-0 spurt gave the Pride an 8-4 edge thanks to a solo block by Mulvaney, two aces from Levinson and two errors by the Lasers. Big swings by DeCamp began and ended a 5-2 match-ending run for the Pride as Springfield escaped with the 15-10 win. DeCamp registered three of the final five points for the Pride.

Springfield will return home for a match with No. 2 Stevens on Saturday, February 24 at 5:00 pm.

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