Raiders Welcome Back Alumni; Retire Lylin’s #16

Nashua, NH- The Rivier College Volleyball team welcomed back close to 120 former members of the Raider Family in the form of current and former players, parents and supporters at their annual alumni banquet and men's volleyball game on Saturday March 20, 2010. Typically, the game between the current Rivier squad and the accumulation of the returning alumni is the highlight of the day, as a little bit of trash talking, mostly from the alumni, starts weeks before hand and lasts right up until the end of the game. However, this year, except for the trash talk, things were a little different as the lunch and the retiring of a former family members number took center stage. 

Lunch started simple enough around 1:00 PM and was followed by head coach Craig Kolek unveiling the current plans for the upcoming construction that will be taking place at the Muldoon Health and Fitness Center.  After a brief presentation about the layout of the new addition, Erin McIver class of 2009 spoke to the crowd about her time at Rivier College and how much the volleyball program meant to her.  In true McIver fashion, she was telling jokes and revisiting special times with friends, teammates and coaches as the crowd listened on and laughed.  After Erin finished, the current team captains Matt Ferreira and Zach Hansen addressed the crowd to pay tribute to former teammate Austin Soucy.  Soucy played on the team last season and should have been a member of this year’s squad, but the call of his country came and Austin, a member of the Army National Guard, is set to be deployed to Iraq later this year.  Austin was home for a few days between training and was able to attend the lunch, where Ferreira and Hansen presented him with a “Support Our Troops” t-shirt with his number 12 on it.  The current Raider team would be wearing identicle shirts, all with the number 12, during the alumni game. The team also pays tribute to Austin before every game, where they stand and salute the flag during the national anthem, the same way a soldier would.  Both the team and the entire school are proud of Austin and look forward to his safe return.

Now, it was time to retire the number of former player Eugene Lylin. Eugene came to Rivier as a freshman during the 2002-2003 school year and played as a member of the 2003 volleyball team. A 6'3 outside hitter, Lylin was an athletic young man with a ton of potential and a smile that lit up a room. It was after the 2003 season that a tumor was found and Eugene was diagnosed with brain cancer. Eugene fought the best he could, but the cancer spread quickly through his body. Throughout his treatment, Lylin made a number of visits to Rivier to see his friends and watch his teammates play volleyball, but during the 2004 season, what would have been his sophomore year, Lylin passed away. Teammates Andy Chace and Mike Buccarelli, both of whom were freshman the same year as Eugene and graduated in 2006, spoke briefly to the crowd to talk about the great friend that they had both lost and how hard it was to play through the pain. More importantly, they spoke of how much knowing him for those brief moments in their lives have forever changed them for the better. They spoke of his smile and how he was always willing to do anything for a friend, and even as he saw his end coming closer, he was always more concerned about how everyone else was doing. The Raiders retired Eugene's #16 with a banner that will be hung in the Muldoon Health and Fitness Center and presented an Artistic Tribute, by current player Tajh Stokes, to his parents Dennis and Olga Flory and his younger brother Nikita.

The game itself featured 14 former Raiders taking on the current team. The current Raiders, led by honorary coach Austin Soucy, ended up defeating the alumni 3-1, after a lot of trash talk and a lot of fun.