The College of Staten Island women’s volleyball squad dropped a straight-set match tonight to the City College of New York in both teams’ CUNYAC regular season finale played at the Sports & Recreation Center. Individual scores were 25-13, 25-19, and 25-13. The win insured at least a tie for first place in the CUNYAC standings for CCNY at 8-1 (20-9 overall), while CSI fell to 5-4 in CUNYAC play (12-15 overall), and have earned the No. 5 seeding in the upcoming CUNYAC Postseason Championship Tournament. CSI will travel to Lehman College on Tuesday, November 3 for quarterfinal action.
Despite the final score, the Dolphins played admirably against the Beavers on their Senior Night, posting leads midway through each game, before late runs by CCNY capped each game.
In the opener, CSI and CCNY kept exchanging the lead. A 9-1 run by CCNY made it 9-4, but then CSI came back to tie the score at 9-9 on a nice service stretch by Fiosa Begai. From there, however, CCNY got on track on a couple of services by Floriana Garo and CCNY never looked back.
In Game 2, CSI held the lead for most of the early stages. After falling behind, 4-3, the Dolphins used a pair of aces and two kills from Joanna Tepedino to take their final lead at 14-13. Again though, CCNY was there to turn the tide. Benefitting from multiple attack errors by CSI, the Beavers closed the game on a 6-1 run and won, 25-19.
In Game 3 CSI again posted a handful of leads in the opening stages. The Dolphins took a 4-1 lead early, and then held a slim 10-9 advantage. From there though, it was all CCNY, as the Beavers went on an impressive 16-3 run to close the game and win outright, 25-13.
Leading the way for CCNY was Garo, who posted 14 kills on 24 attempts while teammate Melissa Blass posted 11 kills of her own. Nicole Cascone had a game-high 16 assists while also adding a team high 13 digs. CSI was paced by Tepedino’s six kills, while Alba Basha put up 11 assists. Tepedino was also active defensively, coming through with 13 digs. CCNY out-killed the Dolphins, 36-15, and posted a healthy .271 attack percentage.
The game marked the end of the regular season for the Dolphins, and the team will stay idle until a week from tonight when they travel to face Lehman College, who finished with the conference’s No. 4 seeding at 6-3. Game time is scheduled for 6pm.