JAMAICA, N.Y.—The York College men's volleyball team dropped an important CUNYAC match to rival Brooklyn College on Tuesday night by a score 3-2 (25-9, 20-25, 25-16, 27-29, 15-11).  The Cardinals overcame a first-set loss and later a big deficit in the fourth set, but came up short in the deciding fifth set.
 
York struggled in the first set as Brooklyn jumped out to a 12- 2 advantage thanks to a strong blocking game.  York could never get back into the set, managing just two kills and committing ten hitting errors.
 
The Cardinals played much-improved ball in the second set, hitting .273 as a team.  York jumped out to a 7-2 advantage, thanks to big kills from Larry Moore and Neko Lyttle.  From there, York continued to hold off every Brooklyn run, not allowing the Bulldogs to get closer than four points.  After a Vaughn Titus kill and ace cut York's lead to 22-18, York scored three of the next five points to take the set.  A Chris Montefusco kill finished off the set.
 
The tide turned again in the third set, with Brooklyn dominating just like it did in the opening set.  Brooklyn quickly jumped out to a 7-3 advantage after an ace by Kevin Batista.  They then extended that lead to 13-5, following a Moaz Choudhary kill.  Brooklyn would lead by as much as 12 in the set.
 
Brooklyn jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth set, following a block from Choudhary and Ahmed Moawad.  They maintained that six-point lead (13-7), but York rallied with five straight points to make it 13-12.  Akeem George slammed down two straight kills and then York had three consecutive blocks—first, solo blocks from Lyttle and Murray and then a block assist from Lyttle and Frederis Tapia.
 
Brooklyn responded with six straight points to go up 19-12, but York had one more rally in them.  With Brooklyn leading 23-14, the Cardinals rattled off nine straight to tie it up at 23-23.  The two teams then continually exchanged points until York finally broke through with a Philton Paul kill that won the set, 29-27.
 
In the final set, Brooklyn got the jump on York, scoring the first five points.  York once again had to play catch-up and scored the next four points to cut the lead to 5-4.  It would remain a one-point game until Brooklyn scored five straight to go ahead 13-8. York had one last rally, scoring the next three points to make it 13-11, but Brooklyn would finally finish off the match following a York service error and then a Brooklyn service ace.
 
George led York with ten kills and six total blocks, while Murray had eight kills. Paramvir Singh recorded a match-high 15 digs and Kevin Campbell had ten digs. Adil Manji finished with 17 assists and Lyttle totaled six blocks.
 
Rudy Zhao had a match-high 15 kills for Brooklyn and Titus finished with 12 kills.
 
The loss drops York's record to 3-11 overall and puts them in a 0-3 hole in CUNYAC play. Brooklyn improves to 9-6 overall and 4-0 in CUNYAC play.
 
York will be back at it tomorrow with a home non-conference match vs. the College of Mt. St. Vincent.