JAMAICA, N.Y.- With their 3-0 defeat of Lehman College in the CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) quarterfinals this past Tuesday, the York College men's volleyball team will take on rival Hunter College in the semifinals on Friday, April 11 at 4 p.m., with a trip to the Championship match later that evening at stake.
Earlier this month, the Cardinals took to the road to play these same Hunter College Hawks and were swept in the doubleheader. York lost the first match 3-1 (27-25, 20-25, 25-21, 26-24) and the second 3-0 (28-26, 25-19, 25-21). While sets were tightly contested, the Cardinals total 6-1 deficit on the afternoon are a cause for concern for a York club who was otherwise stellar in CUNYAC play throughout the season.
The aforementioned matches led to the Hawks of Hunter overthrowing York as the conference's number two seed (Baruch being the number one). In the first match, several Cardinals did prove to Hunter that a rematch would be no easy task. Standout
Edner Geffrard led York with 12 kills, while seniors
Leszek Stankiewicz and
Bryan Williams chipped in ten apiece. Williams also had a team-high eleven digs and
Avinash Thomas led with a game-high 38 assists. For Hunter, Matthew Ng (match-high 18 kills), Ben Crusinberry and Alexandru Barbulescu (ten kills each) led the way.
The second match (swept by Hunter) saw
Randy Adams contribute 12 kills for York. Thomas contributed another stellar effort with 27 assists and
Paramivir Singh notched 11 digs. Barbulescu led the way for his team however with a game-high .400 hitting percentage to go along with twelve kills and three blocks.
Some of York's season leaders include Stankiewicz and his .304 hitting percentage-ranking third amongst all CUNYAC players. Also ranked third in CUNYAC are Thomas' 7.80 assists per set.
Bryan Williams has 2.68 kills per set, ranking him fifth in the conference and
Randy Adams .39 service aces per set rank 10th in the CUNYAC.
Hunter is also the home team of many conference leaders, including Barbulescu (.407 hitting percentage-2nd; 0.85 blocks per set-3rd). Other leaders include Stanley Martinez and his 8.31 assists per set- ranking him 2nd in the conference and Steven Tarquino's 1.14 blocks per set are a CUNYAC best.
Opening serve to the match is set for 4 p.m., with the winner advancing to play in the conference championship at 8 p.m. against the winner of Baruch and Brooklyn College. Baruch—the five-time defending CUNYAC champs— is heavily favored to make it back to the finals.
York (19-17, 10-4 CUNYAC) will put their season on the line in a semifinal rematch against a Hunter College team (17-13, 13-2 CUNYAC) that is hungry for revenge from last year's loss in this same semifinal matchup. The match was nothing short of a CUNYAC all-time classic with Friday's action likely to be more of the same.
Tickets are free and can be downloaded at cunyathletics.com. If you can't make the game,
live stats will be available here.
