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THOMAS BELTON NAMED MUSTANG/GNAC PLAYER-OF-THE-WEEK
Mount Ida College men's volleyball junior Thomas Belton (Springfield, MA/Springfield Central) has been selected as this week's Mustang-of-the-Week. He has also been honored as Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Player-of-the-Week for the first time this season. Belton led the Mustangs to perfect 3-0 record capturing victories over Daniel Webster College, Emerson College, and Albertus Magnus College. Two of the three wins last week came via GNAC bouts against the Lions and Falcons. The Mustangs won a barn burner over Emerson, 3-2 (30-21, 30-23, 27-30, 25-30, and 15-13), in dramatic fashion and pounded hosting Albertus Magnus Saturday in New Haven, Connecticut 3-0 (30-10, 30-18, and 30-23). Men's Volleyball snatched another five game match victory over hosting non-conference foe Daniel Webster, 3-2 (30-26, 29-31, 30-28, 28-30, and 15-11) that started their three game winning streak earlier in the week.
Belton was solid in all three victories starting against the Eagles Sunday afternoon tallying a team high 23 kills, two service aces, 10 digs, and five total blocks (2 solo, 3 assist). In their toughest GNAC match-up of the week, Belton hammered 14 kills against visiting Emerson in a marathon five game match that went down to the wire. He also added a team high 21 digs and three total blocks (1 solo, 2 assist) over the Lions. In their final victory of the week over the Falcons, Belton was limited in playing time with Head Coach Doug Porrell get his bench players some playing time. Thomas pounded four kills, four service aces, and four total blocks (3 solo, 1 assist). Belton totaled 41 kills, 33 digs, 12 total blocks, and six service aces for the week.
In his third overall season of play, Belton leads the Mustang men's volleyball program in kills (81), kills per game (3.38), and digs (53). He is second overall in hitting percentage (.367) behind a near perfect hitting percentage from freshman Ross Florexil (Lake Worth, FL/Lake Worth) at .448 with only eight hitting errors out of 58 total attempts.
The Mustangs, who are off to one of their best starts in eight years, will travel to Johnson & Wales University Tuesday night for a key GNAC match-up with the struggling Wildcats starting at 7:00 p.m.
