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JAMAICA, N.Y.— The York College men's volleyball team lost a pair of hard-fought matches at home on Wednesday evening. In the first match, York dropped an exciting contest to defending-CUNYAC Champion and seventh-ranked Baruch College, 3-1 (21-25, 25-17,25-11, 25-22). The Cardinals then dropped another tough one, losing to Fontbonne University (Missouri) by a score of 3-1 (27-25, 28-26, 19-25, 25-19).
The opening match was a rematch of last year's CUNYAC Championship and the contest lived up to the billing. York came out strong and took the first set in impressive fashion. But Baruch (7-1, 3-0 CUNYAC) quickly adjusted and took the following two sets in convincingly.
After trailing for most of the fourth set, York found some energy thanks to a raucous crowd at the York College Gymnasium and rallied to tie the score at 19-19. The Bearcats followed with four straight points though and went up 23-19. York had one more rally in them and cut the deficit to 23-22, but a subsequent service error on the Cardinals gave the Bearcats match point. A kill by Baruch's Brian Coniglio followed, giving the Bearcats the victory.
In the second match, York may have been a bit worn down following the emotional loss to Baruch and struggled out of the gate against Fontbonne. The Griffins were able to take advantage and escaped with narrow victories in the first two sets.
York picked it up in the third when two-time CUNYAC All-Star
Edner Geffrard checked into the match for the first time. Geffrard had sat out the first two sets with a nagging injury. His play helped get the Cardinals on the board and force a fourth set.
But it would prove to be too little, too late as Fontbonne (1-3) held tough in the fourth set to win the match.
The two losses for York could mostly be blamed on their play at the net. Baruch finished with 13 team blocks, to just four for York. Yanni Malo and Jack McKee were a force at the net, as they each had seven block assists. McKee also had 15 kills in the match. Fontbonne had 15 total blocks in the match, with Peter Hibbeler responsible for the majority of those. He finished with three solo and nine assisted blocks, while also adding nine kills.
In the losses, York's
Bryan Williams and
Randy Adams led the way. Williams combined for 23 kills in the two matches (11 vs. Baruch, 12 vs. Fontbonne) and Adams totaled 19 kills (12 vs. Fontbonne, 7 vs. Baruch). Setter
Avinash Thomas finished with 29 assists against Baruch and 33 vs. Fontbonne.
Leszek Stankiewicz had seven kills and four blocks vs, Fontbonne
York drops to 5-4, 2-1 CUNYAC with the loss. They will return to action on Saturday with a tri-match at Cairn University in Langhorne, PA. York faces Cairn University at 2 p.m. and Penn State Altoona at 4 p.m.
