Men’s Volleyball Tops Hunter to Advance to 2nd Straight CUNYAC Championship
Cardinals Upset Hunter in Five Sets
John Scarinci, Director of Sports Information
BOX SCORE NEW YORK, N.Y.— The York College men's volleyball team punched a ticket to the 2014 CUNY Athletic Conference Championship match for the second consecutive season, after defeating rival Hunter College, 3-2 (28-26, 18-25, 15-25, 25-16, 15-11).
The third-seeded Cardinals rallied from a 2-1 set deficit to defeat the second-seeded Hawks in the semifinal round for the second straight year. Last season, the two teams also went five sets in their meeting. Also, just like last year, the Hawks won the two regular season match-ups, but it was the Cardinals who came out on top when it mattered most.
York will now play in the finals tonight at 8 p.m. against Baruch College. The match will be held at Baruch College.
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York's four CUNYAC All-Stars—
Leszek Stankiewicz,
Randy Adams,
Bryan Williams and
Edner Geffrard all came up big for York throughout the match.
Bryan Williams had the most notable performance, finishing with a match-high 17 kills (.400 hitting percentage), to go along with 11 digs and three aces.
Randy Adams slammed ten kills and had eight digs and three blocks and
Edner Geffrard finished with six kills, eight digs and two blocks. Senior captain
Leszek Stankiewicz had 15 kills and hit .407 with ten digs. Seven of his kills came in the pivotal fourth set, which helped propel York to the win.
The Hawks saw an outstanding effort from setter Stanley Martinez go to waste as he filled up the box score in a losing effort. He finished with 38 assists,13 digs, nine block assists and nine kills. Freshman Steven Tarquinio had a team-high 12 kills, with 11 block assists.
York managed to pull of the upset win, despite being dominated at the net. The Hawks had 17 team blocks to seven for York. Hunter also hit .236 to York's .167, but the Cardinals had 57 kills to 49 for Hunter and also recorded 12 service aces, while Hunter had just five.
The opening set saw the two teams go back and forth, until Hunter opened up a 23-20 advantage and looked to be in control of the set. The Cardinals scored the next two points to cut the deficit to one before a kill by Hunter's Matthew Ng gave the Hawks set point. But
Bryan Williams evened it up at 24-24 with a kill. The two teams then exchanged a pair of points to make it 26-26. But consecutive York kills from Williams and Stankiewicz gave York the early lead.
The second set was all Hunter as they jumped out to a 6-0 advantage and never looked back. York could never recover from the early deficit, as Hunter held a comfortable advantage throughout.
In the third set, York and Hunter battled early on, with the Hawks holding an early 9-7 advantage. But Hunter ran off an 11-3 run to take a commanding, 20-10 lead. They would go on to take the set 25-15.
In the fourth set, with the two teams tied at 13-13, York picked up its play. The Cardinals scored nine unanswered points, with Williams serving, to take a 22-13 advantage. Stankiewicz had four kills during the stretch, with Williams also serving up an ace.
In the final set, York held the early edge as they jumped out an 11-6 advantage. But the Hawks would not go quietly, scoring five straight to even up the score. The Cardinals did them some favors, with four of those points coming on errors.
But York regrouped, getting a kill from
Edner Geffrard, followed by an attack error on Hunter. Williams then recorded a kill to set up a match point, and then York finished off the match with a block by
Randy Adams.
York improves to 20-17 with the win, while Hunter drops to 17-14. The Hawks will hope to receive a bid to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship (ECAC), which will be announced on Monday.
