Men’s Volleyball Drops Season-Opener to NJCU, 3-1
BOX SCORE
JAMAICA, N.Y. – Despite having three players reach double figures in kills, the York College men's volleyball team dropped a tightly-contested match to New Jersey City University by a score of 3-1 (25-20, 26-24, 22-25, 25-19) in the 2013 season-opener at the York College Gym on Tuesday night.
York got a team-high 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .320, to go along with nine digs from junior
Leszek Stankiewicz.
Jhonnattan Fernandez finished with 11 kills and hit .400 and
Emmanuel Geffrard played well in his collegiate-debut, slamming ten kills and registering 12 digs. Junior libero
Terrence Sutton had a match-high 13 digs and setter
Jon Peter Sardea recorded a match-high 33 assists.
But those efforts were outdone by the play of NJCU's Besmir Arslani, who finished with a match-high 19 kills, while hitting .361. He also added nine digs and three aces. Justin Beaumont chipped in 11 kills and hit .360. Libero Nik Poh had ten digs.
The first set was a back-and-forth contest until late. With NJCU leading 16-15, the Gothic Knights rattled off four of the next five points to go up 20-16. York closed to within two points (22-20) but NJCU finished off the set with three straight points. A .348 hitting percentage by NJCU in the first set helped the Gothic Knights jump out to an early lead.
The Cardinals held the lead midway through the second set, going up 14-10 following a kill by
Kevin Mora. York still led 20-18 but an NJCU kill and a couple Cardinal errors put the NJCU on top 21-20. The score was still tied at 24-24, when an Ivan Prensa kill gave NJCU set point. An attack error by York followed and NJCU took a commanding 2-0 lead.
But York would regroup in the third set, hitting .242—its highest percentage of the match. The Cardinals held a slight lead for the majority of the set and held on to force the fourth set.
The Cardinals could not carry the momentum in to that fourth set though, as they hit .000, compared to .207 for the Gothic Knights. With the scored tied at 10-10, NJCU iced the game when they scored nine of the next 11 points to go up 19-12. NJCU finished off the match with a kill by Hamza Elsammak.
NJCU improves to 3-1 with the victory. York (0-1) will host NYU-Polytechnic and Yeshiva University on Thursday, beginning at 6;00 p.m.
