No. 14 Men’s Volleyball Finishes Second at Hawks Invitational

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In its first tournament action of the season, the MIT men’s volleyball team posted a 3-1 ledger en route to a second-place finish at the SUNY New Paltz Hawks Invitational. The nationally-ranked No. 14 Engineers (4-1) fell to No. 10 Baruch College (30-28, 26-30, 30-26, 30-19) before sweeping the host Hawks (30-25, 32-30, 30-28), Elms College (30-13, 30-20, 30-23), and No. 15 Emmanuel College (30-25, 30-27, 31-29).

In the Cardinal and Gray’s opener with Baruch, Garrett Winther compiled 12 kills, a .360 hitting percentage, six digs, four blocks, and two aces. Matt Hohenberger notched a team-high 11 kills and three aces as Mike Demyttenaere tallied 10 kills, seven blocks, and two aces. Alex Becherer chipped in eight kills and four blocks while Eric Reuland collected 14 digs. Tim Lee and Caine Jette shared setting responsibilities, finishing with 17 and 21 assists, respectively.

Demyttenaere paced MIT with 18 kills and a .517 hitting performance versus New Paltz. Hohenberger racked up 17 kills and a .682 hitting percentage as Winther tallied 15 kills, five digs, and four blocks. Becherer led the way with eight digs while Patrick Vatterott notched five blocks. Reuland contributed seven digs and two aces as Lee totaled 44 assists and seven digs.

Against Elms, Vatterott powered the Engineers with 11 kills and three blocks while Troy Tamas recorded eight kills and a team-high nine digs in two sets. Becherer amassed nine kills, five digs, two blocks, and two aces as Hohenberger connected on all eight of his hitting attempts. Daniel Sngiem gathered eight digs while Robin Demyttenaere registered a pair of solo blocks. Lee dished out 15 assists in the opening set as Jette finished the match with 23 assists and eight digs. As a team, MIT registered a blistering hitting percentage of .470.

In the finale with Emmanuel, Mike Demyttenaere racked up 14 kills, a .370 hitting percentage, and three blocks. Becherer and Hohenberger both totaled 11 kills as Becherer added six digs. Winther contributed eight kills and five digs while Jeremy Velazquez posted eight digs and an ace. Vatterott notched seven kills and two blocks as Reuland collected six digs. Lee rounded out the Engineers with 47 assists, eight digs, and an ace.