NEWTON, Mass. – Even with Stephen Selnick quarterbacking the Lions with 46 assists on the night with 18 kills to Connor Burton and 17 to Nadav Swarttz, the Emerson Men's Volleyball Team was just unable to finish a heartbreaker Thursday night as they fell 3-2 to the Lasell Lasers. Falling 17-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-16 and 17-15 the Lions fall to 7-9 overall and 2-5 in conference play while Lasell improves to 9-11 on the year and 3-6 in the GNAC.

Things started off well for the Lions in the first set as they swung a nasty .308 as a team with Eric Doherty and Nadav Swarttz floored four apiece while setter Stephen Selnick put up 10 assists and two kills himself as EC took the lead and never looked back in a blazing 25-17 win to open the match.

Set two saw the Lasers compose themselves though as they battled back hitting .262 in the set with Abdulrehman Khan led the way with five kills to hit .375 in the set. Emerson gave it an effort though as they forced six tie scores and three lead changes in the set while putting up three blocks as a team, in the end errors and the Lasell offense was too much though with LC knotting the match with a 25-23 win.

Another battle awaited the teams in the third set, this time  with five tie scores and a lead change as Lasell rallied up to hit .290 in the set, but Emerson hung in with Swarttz and Connor Burton killing four each while capitalizing on LC's errors in the set to snake by with a 25-22 win and the lead.

With their backs against the wall, Lasell came out blazing in the fourth set as Dan Raffol went off the chain for seven kills and a .636 attack percentage that the Lions couldn't stop as Lasell as a team swung .429 to steam to a 25-16 win and send it to a fifth and final set.

Another battle royale was to meet the teams in the fifth as well where it took nine tie scores, four lead changes and extra points to finally decide who would walk away with the W which in the end Lasell eeked out with a .231 attack percentage to EC's .208 with both teams putting up two blocks each. In the end the Lasers were just barely better than the Lions in the set to close out the match 17-15.

The Lions continue GNAC action this weekend as they set to travel to Daniel Webster this Saturday for a 1 p.m. match start.