Cambridge, Mass. – March 12, 2026 – The No. 3 ranked Springfield College men's volleyball team defeated 13th ranked MIT in straight sets on Thursday night in Rockwell Cage by scores of 25-22, 25-21, 27-25.

Springfield improved to 15-3 overall and earned its tenth victory over a ranked team in the AVCA Division III national poll this season, while MIT dropped to 15-4. Springfield is the first team this season to defeat the Engineers in straight sets and the second to hand them a loss at home.

Sam Levinson (LaGrange, Ill.) led Springfield with 11 kills and nine digs, while Jake DesLauriers (Eastport, N.Y.) hit .462 with seven kills, six digs and an ace and Brennan Cutter (Trumbull, Conn.) hit .750 with six kills on eight errorless swings to go along with four blocks, two digs and an ace. As a team, Springfield hit .354 with 38 total kills in the three set win.

Springfield hit a match-high .409 in the opening stanza with 13 total kills as the Pride slowly built out a three point lead following swings by Carter Durivage (East Greenbush, N.Y.) and Will Kirchhoff (Macedon, N.Y.). Late in the set a pair of kills from Durivage made it 20-18 before MIT used a kill from Braeden Baker and an ace from Matthew Louis to knot the score and force the Pride to burn a timeout. Levinson swung for a kill out of the break before notching four of the final five points of the set on two MIT errors, an ace from DesLauriers and a kill from Durivage to win it 25-22.

In the second, Levinson hit .667 with six kills on nine errorless swings and held MIT to a match-low .222. Early on, back-to-back swings by Levinson and a kill from DesLauriers made it a 10-7 lead as the Pride never relinquished the lead en route to the 25-21 set two win. A quick spurt that saw a block in the middle by Cutter and Durivage and kills from both Cutter and Mulvaney made the score 19-15 before a swing by DesLauriers and a solo block from Cutter gave Springfield set point. After fending one off, Cutter terminated the set with a kill off the hands of Mulvaney.

MIT held a 12-10 edge in the third before Springfield embarked on a 7-3 run to go ahead 17-14 as the spurt was capped on back-to-back kills from Levinson before Baker put one into the net for the Engineers. MIT then produced six of the next eight points and then eventually had set point at 24-22 after a kill and an ace from Baker. Baker then served it into the net before a block from Levinson and Kirchhoff as well as another kill from DesLauriers gave Springfield match point at 25-24. MIT knotted the score at 25, but DesLauriers ripped the ball into the corner of the court and Richard Eber Jr. (Hummelstown, Pa.) secured the sweep with an ace at the service line to complete the three set victory for the Pride.

Springfield will have 11 days off before returning to action on March 23 with a road match at Elms beginning at 6:00 pm.

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