Springfield, Mass. – April 18, 2026 – For the second consecutive season and for the 11th time in program history, the No. 1 ranked Springfield College men's volleyball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III National Semifinals following a four set win over No. 7 New Paltz on Saturday night in front of a packed crowd in Blake Arena.

Springfield, which won by scores of 28-26, 15-25, 25-20, 25-18, improved to 23-3 and will take on No. 5 California Lutheran University in the national semifinal round on Thursday afternoon at 5:00 pm on its home court in Springfield. New Paltz wraps up its season with an overall record of 23-8.

At the conclusion of the regional championship, AJ Seveland (Jenkintown, Pa.) was named as the tournament's most outstanding player and was joined on the all-regional team by Carter Durivage (East Greenbush, N.Y.).

As a team, Springfield hit .448 with 49 kills on 96 swings. Jake DesLauriers (Eastport, N.Y.) posted a team-best 14 kills and hit .480, while Durivage added 11 kills on 20 errorless swings and Seveland notched 11 kills and hit .455. Dylan Mulvaney (Reston, Va.) posted 43 assists, two kills and seven digs on the night. In the offensive bout, New Paltz produced 54 kills and hit .349. In the second set alone, New Paltz hit .632 with 13 kills.

New Paltz jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the first following an ace by Matt Kudlinski and a kill from Mike Handell. Springfield trailed 15-9, before a New Paltz error and a solo block by Mulvaney ignited a 7-1 run tying the score at 16. The two sides traded points before kills by Cutter and Seveland gave Springfield set point before New Paltz responded twice to even the score at 24. An error by the Hawks once again gave Springfield set point once again, but Nikko Tenedorio kept New Paltz alive with a swing off the hands of Matt Marusza. A kill from Seveland set up set point one more time before Will Kirchhoff (Macedon, N.Y.) terminated the first with a swing through the middle to win it 28-26.

New Paltz hit .632 in the second with 13 kills tying the match at one after a 25-15 win. The Hawks took a 13-6 lead. Springfield was able to pull within six after a pair of kills by Seveland and a swing by Kirchhoff. A three point spurt that included two kill from Geoff Ndoria and an ace by Marusza pushed New Paltz back ahead by nine before Krish Jain ultimately ended the set with a swing form Marusza. 

Durivage began the third with a kill before the Pride raced out to an early 6-2 lead. Another brief 6-2 run extended Springfield's lead to five at 13-8 following kills from Durivage and DesLauriers and aces by Seveland and Cutter. Springfield forged ahead by as many as six at 17-11 before New Paltz was able to cut its deficit to just two minutes later at 19-17. A setter dump by Mulvaney sparked run of five of the final seven points of the set before Seveland ended it with the Pride ahead 25-20 heading to the fourth up 2-1. 

Springfield needed just seven kills and hit .438 in the fourth to secure the match as the Pride took advantage of seven hitting errors from New Paltz to advance to the national semifinals. An ace by DesLauriers accounted for the first point of the fourth and the Pride never looked back. Seveland and Durivage teamed up to extend Springfield's lead to eight at 14-6 before four straight errors by New Paltz made it 18-10. Down the stretch three more errors including two from the service line gave Springfield match point before Kirchhoff terminated the match with a kill through the middle securing the set 25-18 and the match 3-1.

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