Men's Volleyball sweeps Roberts Wesleyan for first-ever ECC victory

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - History was made inside of the Henry Butova Gymnasium on Saturday, March 16 as the American International College men's volleyball team earned its first-ever conference victory, defeating East Coast Conference foe Roberts Wesleyan University 25-17, 25-21, 25-19. 

AIC is now 2-12 overall and 1-2 in the ECC.

The Yellow Jackets came out strong with a pair of kills by Isaiah Lee, and a series of Redhawks blunders pushed AIC's edge to 7-2; further runs expanded that advantage to 13-4 before the scoring became more back-and-forth. The hole was far too deep for the visitors to dig out of, and a final four-point run was finished off by a Collin Doyle ace to close the first-set victory. 

Roberts Wesleyan and AIC traded runs throughout the second; crucially, AIC never trailed, and despite a five-point run that evened the set at 20-20 by the guests, AIC hung tight. After an error gave AIC back the lead, Michael Maldonado landed a pair of aces around a set for a kill by Lee, and then was able to pass for the set point kill by Robert Santana to advance AIC to a 2-0 lead. 

In the third, the Redhawks played with desperation and racked up seven of eight points, separating their run into four and three in a row only with a service error, to lead 14-8. The Yellow Jackets were relentless, and took nine of the next 11 points to take a 17-16 lead, and grabbed eight out of the final 11 to finish the match and their first-ever conference win in a sweep. 

Santana led AIC with a dozen kills and eight digs; Miranda had nine kills and six digs. Maldonado racked up 27 assists.

AIC continues the season on Friday, March 22 at Monroe.