Riverdale, N.Y. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Men's Volleyball team opened the 2014 season with a 17-25, 25-23, 17-25, 15-25 non-conference loss to visiting Albertus Magnus on Wednesday night. Freshman Jacob Johnson (Henderson, Nev.) paced the offensive attack with a team-high 10 kills.
 
After falling behind 6-3 in the opening set on Wednesday, the Dolphins rallied with three straight points, including a pair of service aces from Tyler Cucullu (Henderson, Nev.), to knot the score at 6-6 in the early going.
 
Albertus Magnus would answer with five of the next six points, taking advantage of three Mount Saint Vincent miscues, to take an 11-7 lead. The Falcons would not surrender the lead the rest of the stanza and allowed the Dolphins to tally consecutive points just three more times in the frame.
 
The Dolphins rebounded in the second set to even the match at a set apiece on the strength of 10 kills. The Mount got off to a quick start with a 12-5 lead, keyed by five Albertus Magnus errors and four kills from Johnson.
 
Mount Saint Vincent would maintain the advantage until a five point run from the Falcons moved them in front 19-18. The rest of the set would feature five ties and five lead changes until the Dolphins put together a three point run, all on Falcon attack errors, to overcome a 23-22 deficit and even the match.
 
The visitors would carry the play in the third and fourth sets after hitting a blistering .406 with 16 kills in the third frame and hitting .355 in the fourth stanza with 14 kills. The Falcons committed just six total attack errors in the final two sets and received 11 total kills from Raul Rivera Rojas.
 
For the match, Albertus Magnus hit .308 as a team, putting away 52 kills and committing just 15 attack errors. Rivera Rojas paced the visitors with 16 winners and a .367 attack percentage, while Glenn Johnson added 11 winners and a .524 hitting percentage. Raymond Torres handed out a match-high 43 assists and Chase Brinton led the team with 16 digs.
 
In his collegiate debut, Johnson posted a team-high 10 kills and added three digs and a block. Brett Holiday (Stratford, N.J.) posted six kills and three digs. Cucullu finished the match with four kills and three service aces and James DiGiovanni (Bay Shore, N.Y.) handed out 22 assists. T.J. Barczik (Lake Grove, N.Y.) led all players in the match with 22 digs.
 
With Wednesday's loss Mount Saint Vincent falls to 0-1 overall on the season. The Dolphins will be back in action again on February 3 when they travel to Albertus Magnus to finish off a home and home with the Falcons. Match time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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