Senior Outside Hitter Delivers 31-Kill Performance in Five-Set Thriller on Senior Day Eve
February 27, 2026
There are nights in college athletics when a single player lifts an entire program on his back, when the ball keeps finding him because there is simply no one else you would rather have in that moment. Thursday evening at the Lasell Athletic Center in Newton, Massachusetts, that player was Jasper Schultz.
The 6-foot-5 senior outside hitter from Winchester, Massachusetts, was called upon 64 times by his teammates and answered nearly every one of those calls with authority. Schultz finished with 31 kills on a scorching .344 hitting percentage, adding a block and seven digs as the Lasell Lasers outlasted conference rival Wentworth 3-2 in a five-set battle that took two hours and 19 minutes and left an announced crowd of 200 fans breathless.
With the win, Lasell improved to 12-4 overall and 1-0 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference play, taking sole possession of first place in the GNAC standings. The result carries additional weight because Wentworth has been the gold standard of the conference, having won four consecutive GNAC championships and entering the night at 10-4 with a 2-1 conference mark.
The rivalry between these two programs is personal and well-documented. Last spring, Lasell reached the GNAC Championship match before falling to Wentworth in three sets. That loss has been part of the motivation fueling this senior group all season, and on Thursday, Schultz made clear that this year’s chapter will be written differently.
The match itself was a genuine five-set war. Lasell took the opener 25-23 with Schultz sparking a key mid-set run that erased an early deficit and got the home crowd engaged. The second set slipped away in extra points, 29-27, after Schultz and his teammates repeatedly clawed back to tie the score, including at 26-26 and 27-27. Lasell reclaimed the lead by capturing the third set 25-18, with Schultz connecting repeatedly off crisp sets from setter Trystan Maloney and multi-position contributor Branch Barnes. A wild fourth set went to Wentworth 31-29, setting the stage for a decisive fifth.
What happened next was pure Schultz. Lasell stormed through the fifth set 15-5, going on an 11-1 run that essentially ended the match before Wentworth could find any footing. Schultz was at the center of that run with kill after kill at critical moments, and a service ace sealed the victory and sent the home gym into celebration.
To fully appreciate what Schultz produced on Thursday, consider the context of 64 total attacks across five sets. That is an average of nearly 13 swings per set, a workload that demands not only physical endurance but an elite mental focus that does not waver as the night wears on. He logged 31 kills against a Wentworth defense that was prepared for him. The Leopards knew he was the primary weapon, and it did not matter.
Schultz is a Sports Management major in his final season at Lasell, and his journey with the program has been one of steady, sustained growth. He arrived as a freshman in the 2022-23 season, contributing 85 kills across 84 sets at 1.01 per set with a .235 hitting percentage. He added 88 kills in his sophomore year, then made a significant jump in 2024-25 with 169 kills at 2.56 per set. This season, he has taken another major leap, recording 183 kills in just 47 sets at 3.89 per set with a .253 hitting percentage. Across his four seasons, he has accumulated 525 career kills, 359 career digs, and 81 total blocks, numbers that tell the story of a player who has developed into a complete performer on both sides of the ball.
The conference has noticed. Schultz earned GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors twice already this season, first in January after posting 32 kills across three matches with a season-high 21 kills against SUNY Poly in the season opener, and again in February after putting up 49 kills in a four-match stretch that included double-digit kill performances against ranked opponents Stevens and Messiah. He was also an all-conference selection a season ago, meaning he enters this week’s matches as one of the most decorated active players in the league.
What makes Schultz genuinely difficult to gameplan for is his versatility. He leads the Lasers in kills by a significant margin, but he also contributes on defense with 69 digs on the season and in the block with 15 total blocks. He serves effectively, has logged service aces, and takes care of the ball in reception. On a team built around multiple contributors, Schultz is the player who can take over a match when the moment demands it, but who also does the quiet, unglamorous work that keeps rallies alive.
Teammates have benefited from playing alongside him. Freshman opposite Branch Barnes has emerged as a dynamic secondary option this season in part because defenses cannot exclusively focus on stopping Schultz. Sophomore middle Paten Buckwalter posted seven blocks in Thursday’s match and has grown into a reliable force at the net. Setter Trystan Maloney, the reigning GNAC Setter of the Year, has an anchor to build an offense around, and that freedom has allowed him to run one of the most efficient attacks in the conference.
The Lasers entered 2026 ranked second in the GNAC preseason coaches’ poll behind Wentworth, and the expectation from day one has been that this group was capable of competing for a championship. At 12-4, with multiple wins over regionally relevant competition and a head-to-head conference victory over the defending champions, that expectation is starting to look like a baseline rather than a ceiling.
The regular season still has games remaining, including conference matchups with Dean College, Elms, Rivier, Emmanuel, and Regis, all of which will shape the GNAC standings and tournament seeding. The top six programs at the end of the regular season qualify for the GNAC Championship Tournament, where the top two seeds earn first-round byes. Lasell is now positioned to chase one of those top seeds and potentially the top position overall.
For Jasper Schultz, Friday’s Senior Day celebration against Emerson will serve as a formal acknowledgment of what he and his fellow seniors have meant to this program. But Thursday night against Wentworth was something different. It was a statement. Sixty-four sets. Thirty-one kills. A five-set win over the program that knocked Lasell out of the championship a year ago.
Some players get better under pressure. Some players get bigger when the rivalry is on the line and the gym is full and the match has stretched into a fifth set. Jasper Schultz is that kind of player, and in Newton, Massachusetts, on the eve of his final home send-off, he gave everyone watching a performance they will not forget for a long time.
