Box | Tournament site
NECVA site | Final stats
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Nazareth's men's volleyball season came to a disappointing end Sunday at MIT as the Golden Flyers lost a four-set match to Stevens in the championship match of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association Tournament. Scores were 26-30, 30-22, 30-25, 30-21.

Nazareth, ranked fifth nationally in Division III, was appearing in its first NECVA final and had a 14-match winning streak snapped. The Golden Flyers finish the season 28-5 overall. Stevens, ranked sixth nationally, improved to 25-6 by beating the Golden Flyers for the second time this season. The victory also gives Stevens its fourth NECVA title in the last seven seasons and gives the Ducks an automatic berth to the Molten Division III Men's Invitational Championship April 17-18 at Rampo.

Freshman Billy Gimello had 17 kills for Nazareth and senior Joe Petzoldt added 13, but Nazareth could not compensate for the three-pronged Stevens attack of Tomas Bochicchio (21 kills), Joe Trinsey (20 kills) and Andrew Cranford (17 kills) who combined for 58 of Stevens' 66 kills kills with just eight hitting errors. Setter Brandt Grobeis had 58 assists.

Nazareth used a .303 hitting percentage to win the first set as  Kelvin Rolle each had three kills, including the set-clinching point. Stevens then pulled away in the final three sets to win convincingly.

Leading 8-6 in the fourth set, Stevens rattled off 10 of the next 12 points to take a commanding 18-8 lead. Seven of the points came on Nazareth attack errors. Nazareth had 11 of its 26 hitting errors in the fourth set.

Sophomore Hans Schroeder added 11 kills for the Golden Flyers and senior Frank Leahy delivered 52 assists. Senior Chris DeHority had 12 digs and senior Ryan Johnsen had a match-high seven blocks.

Cranford was named the tournament MVP for Stevens. Gimello, Leahy and Rolle represented Nazareth on the all-tournament team.