Recap courtesy of St. Joseph's College Athletics
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team picked up their second straight win and honored their seniors with a straight-set, 3-0 (27-25, 28-26, 25-13) victory over Sarah Lawrence College in Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Brooklyn Technical High School on Thursday evening.
The Bears (6-11, 3-2 HVIAC) assemble their first win streak of the season and sweep the season series with the Gryphons (0-24, 0-6 HVIAC).
Celebrating their final home game in a Bears uniform in front of a robust crowd, seniorIqbal Husain (West Palm Beach, Fla./Palm Beach Gardens) handed out 22 assists and had three blocks and Javier Bosque (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) brought up 11 digs and added a kill and a block.
Reigning HVIAC Player of the Week Raul Urshela (Orlando, Fla./Colonial) paced the Bears with an all-around effort slamming down a team-high-tying 10 kills, four aces and six blocks, both match highs. Clyde Delacruz contributed to the attack with a career-high 10 kills and stuffed three blocks (two solo). Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) anchored the defense with a match-high 16 digs, also landing five kills.
St. Joseph's matched a team-record 10 blocks in the victory – also set against Sarah Lawrence last season – with five different Bears tallying a block.
Ishaan Pujari led the Gryphons with a 19-kill, 15-dig double-double.
The visitors led by as many as three points on two occasions in the opening set before the Bears won eight of 10 points to take a 23-20 lead. Sarah Lawrence fought off three set points to extend the set before back-to-back kills from Delacruz gave the Bears the set.
Both squads grinded out a close second stanza that saw 11 ties and three lead changes and neither team leading by more than three points. The Gryphons would give a scare extending the set again after erasing two Bears' set points, but a Urshela kill followed by a Gryphon error sealed the set.
Unlike the first two sets, which saw neither team pull away, the St. Joseph's jumped out to an early lead in the third and never looked back. The Bears managed just four kills in the set, but stuffed four blocks and held the Gryphons to a negative hitting percentage to cruise to the straight-set win.
NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS – WEBB
St. Joseph's will close out the regular season with an HVIAC matchup at Webb College on Tuesday, April 8th starting at 7 p.m.
Win or lose, both squads will meet again two days later in the semifinal round of the HVIAC Tournament at Yeshiva University on Thursday, April 10 at 6 p.m.
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Recap courtesy of Sarah Lawrence College Athletics
BROOKLYN, N.Y.—In the Gryphons' regular-season finale, Sarah Lawrence College men's volleyball fell to St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, 3-0, in a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at Brooklyn Technical High School on Thursday.
The match marked the final HVIAC contest for the program, as SLC will transition to the Skyline Conference in 2015.
Sarah Lawrence (0-24, 0-6 HVIAC) took a three-point lead in the opening set at 16-13 and held the advantage to a 19-16 edge. St. Joseph's (6-11, 3-2 HVIAC) rallied late in the set and took a 24-21 lead. SLC fought off three set points and went up 25-24, but the Bears sealed the win, 27-25.
In the second set, SLC again went in front early, leading by as many as four points, 11-7. The Bears erased the advantage and went up three points at 21-18, but the Green and White answered back to tie the set at 22-22. The Gryphons again defended four SJC set points, but the hosts eventually concluded a 28-26 set.
The third set saw St. Joseph's build momentum and win seven-straight points to clinch the sweep, 25-13.
Junior Ishaan Pujari (Bangalore, India/Inventure Academy) led the match with 19 kills and rounded out his sixth double-double with a team-high 15 digs. Sophomore Cameron Martinez (Aledo, Texas/Aledo) continued his streak as the Gryphons' No. 2 hitter, putting away eight kills with seven digs.
Senior libero Brent Terry (Crownpoint, N.M./Idyllwild Arts Academy) notched 11 digs and two assists in his final regular-season match, while rookie setter Nikos Efstratudakis (London, Ontario/American Community School of Athens) totaled 25 assists. Pujari, Efstratudakis and Alex Carroll (Boston, Mass./Homeschooled) each notched two blocks in the match.
For St. Joseph's, Raul Ushela and Clyde Delacruz had 10 kills apiece. Setter Iqbal Husain tallied 22 assists, while Urshela led all players with four service aces and six blocks. Taso Kostikas posted a match-high 16 digs.
Sarah Lawrence concludes the 2014 campaign as the No. 4 seed in the HVIAC Men's Volleyball Championship tournament. The Gryphons will take on top-seed host Yeshiva University on Thursday, April 10 at 6 p.m. The championship match is slated to follow at 8 p.m.
