CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The No. 13 MIT men's volleyball team dropped a tightly contested three set match to No. 3 Springfield on Thursday night at Rockwell Cage. 

THE BASICS: 

• Score: Springfield 3, MIT 0 (25-22, 25-21, 27-25) 
• Records: No. 13 MIT (15-4 Overall), No. 3 Springfield (15-3 Overall)  

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Set 1: The Pride held the advantage early, but a Braeden Baker kill and an attacking error made it a one-point set at 13-12. MIT continued to hang within a few points of Springfield before a kill from Baker and an ace from Matthew Louis tied the set at 20. Henry Garewal tied the match at both 21 and 22 with kills, but the Pride scored the last three points of the set with a kill by Carter Durivage giving the visitors the 25-22 win. 
• Set 2: Sam Levinson gave the Pride a 9-6 advantage with a kill as Springfield held on to the lead for the remainder of the set. Baker cut the lead to one at 15-14, but that was as close as the Engineers got in the set with a Brennan Cutter kill securing a 25-21 set win for Springfield. 
• Set 3: In an exciting back-and forth set that featured 16 ties and 7 lead changes, the Pride held off a late MIT push to earn the sweep. After MIT took a 13-12 lead, Springfield rattled off four straight points to go up 16-13. The Engineers were quick to respond with a 4-0 run of their own as back-to-back aces from Louis gave the hosts an 18-17 advantage. The teams went back-and-forth before a Baker kill and ace gave MIT set point at 24-22. Springfield then scored three straight to get to match point, but a service error tied the set at 25. The Pride then scored the next two with an ace from Richard Eber Jr. sealing the win. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 

• Nate Toth and Garewal paced the MIT offense with 11 kills each while Baker finished with 10. 
• Colin Zimmerman had 15 assists while Jensen Fiskin added 12. George Chang collected eight digs in the match. 
• Levinson led the Pride with 11 kills while Dylan Mulvaney dished out 35 assists.  

UP NEXT: 

• The Engineers will head down the road to Wentworth for a 1:00 PM match on Saturday, March 14.