Release courtesy of CNR Athletics
NEW ROCHELLE, NY – The College of New Rochelle volleyball team clinched the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) Regular Season Championship this afternoon with two 3-0 conference wins in a tri-match held at the Wellness Center.
The Blue Angels (17-4, 5-0 HVIAC) took down title contender Pratt Institute (11-2, 3-1 HVIAC) in the opener before defeating Culinary Institute of America (4-5, 1-3 HVIAC) to seal CNR's first HVIAC Regular Season Championship since 2009. The Blue Angels are the first HVIAC team to finish the conference regular season unbeaten, with all wins coming straight sets, since St. Joseph's College-Brooklyn accomplished the feat in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Pratt defeated Culinary, 3-0, in the day's other match.
CNR has won six matches in a row (all in straight sets) and have won 17 of its last 18, with 15 coming in straight sets.
Fabiola Padilla Rios tallied a double-double with a match-high 14 kills and 15 digs to pace the Blue Angel attack against Pratt. Meghan King added 11 kills while Melanie Lopez Soto handed out 17 assists and Tiany Perez Diaz served up a match-high six aces.
Pratt's Alice Vicente led the Cannoneers with nine kills. The four-time HVIAC Player of the Week was held to a .121 hitting percentage, well below her season average of .394. As a team, Pratt was held to just a .048 hitting percentage by the CNR defense, compared to their season average of .234. The Blue Angel offense hit .206 against a Cannoneer team that was holding its opponents to a .091 hitting percentage on the season.
The first set was a see-saw battle in the early going, with the two teams seeking to gain momentum. With the score knotted at 7-7, the Blue Angels used an 8-3 spurt to open up a 15-10 lead. CNR extended the advantage to 20-12 and held off a late Cannoneer run to take the first set, 25-18.
Pratt led in the early going of the second set, 4-2, before the Blue Angels seized control of the match with a decisive 16-0 run, all with Perez Diaz as the serve and including all six of her aces. CNR took the second set, 25-9.
The Cannoneers again held the lead at the start of the third set. With the score tied at 6-6, the Blue Angels took the lead for a stretch before the set became stalemated at 14-14 until CNR used a short spurt to regain the lead, and held the lead though the rest of the set, which ended with a Rosa Angeles ace to win the set, 25-22, and the match, 3-0.
The College of New Rochelle earned the 3-0 win over Culinary in similar fashion.
King tallied a match-high eight kills, adding seven digs. Padilla Rios served up a match-high five aces and dug up a team-high 15 balls, while Indigo Flowers handed out a match-high 15 assists. Lopez Soto had a strong all-around match, recording six kills, nine assists, seven digs, and two aces.
Emily Brown and Karam Park each tallied four kills to pace Culinary.
The Blue Angels never trailed in the opening set, gradually building up their lead en route to a 25-14 win.
The second set was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team taking a lead larger than two until, with the score tied at 8-8, CNR used a 4-1 spurt to take a 12-9 lead. The Blue Angels led by as many as four before the Steels rallied to knot the score at 17-17. With CNR leading, 19-18, the Blue Angels closed out the set with a 6-0 run which featured four consecutive aces from Padilla Rios to get to set point before King slammed home the kill to secure the 2-0 lead.
In the final set, Culinary took an early, but the Blue Angels stormed right back, and, with the score tied at 6-6, closed out the match with a 19-8 run to take the set, 25-14, and the match, 3-0.
# # #
Release courtesy of Pratt Athletics
NEW ROCHELLE, NY -- The Cannoneers knocked off Culinary 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-22) after dropping the team's first league match to host College of New Rochelle Saturday afternoon.
Senior Diana Lezama led Pratt with 16 digs in the win over CIA, while sophomore Alice Vicente led all players with 12 kills and eight service aces. Fellow sophomore Hannah Calderwood led all players with two solo blocks as Pratt moves to 11-2 on the season.
In the early match, with first place in the HVIAC at stake against the Blue Angels, Pratt'sAlli Houghton led all players with 20 assists, but the setter errored five times in eight attack attempts as the Cannoneers hit only .048, easily the team's season low. Vicente led Pratt with nine kills, but hit only .121, a season low for Pratt's leading hitter. Lezama again led all players with 17 digs and added seven kills for a team-best .174 attack percentage, but New Rochelle took over sole possession of first place with its 25-18, 25-9, 25-22 win.
At 11-2 overall and 4-1 in the HVIAC, Pratt returns to play Tuesday night at St. Joseph's (BK) College.
