The College of Staten Island men’s volleyball squad split an afternoon set of matches today, defeating St. Joseph’s College of Brooklyn, 3-0, while falling to Rutgers – Newark, by the same score.  The Dolphins are now 3-7 on the season.  

In the opening game of the afternoon, CSI took on the home-court Bears of SJC, and the Dolphins prevailed by scores of 25-10, 25-12, and 25-14.  In the opening set, the Dolphins scattered 14 kills and they took a quick, 7-2 edge, led by two Anthony Vigilante kills.  Later, CSI would use five straight points to go up 16-6 with another pair of kills by Mark Palencia.  CSI ended the set on an 8-1 run capped by a Palencia ace.  In the second set, CSI fell behind 5-1, but then a kill by Adil El Haddad and another by Danil Kukovitskiy followed by a Steven Caruso gave CSI back the lead 6-5 and CSI was solid from there.  CSI would use an 8-0 run in teh second set to assume control 16-8, and they would cruise from there as SJC tallied five-straight attack errors.

In the third and final set, CSI again went on the offensive with 12 kills altogether.  CSI took an early 3-0 lead fueled by a Lei kill and later put distance between them and the Bears thanks to back-to-back kills by Palencia and Kukovitskiy en route to the 25-14 final.

In the opener, CSI was led by Palencia’s 14 kills and three service aces.  El Haddad registered 27 assists, while Ronald Tisbe led defensively with 13 digs.  SJC was guided by Thomas Ambrosino’s four kills, while Chris Garcia led the way with seven digs.

In the second matchup, CSI was on the losing end of 25-15, 25-11, and 25-11 scores.  An early run in the first set broke up a 2-2 tie as RU surged ahead 6-2.  A Vigilante kill made it 6-3, but then the Raiders surged again with four straight to make it 10-3, and that proved too much for the Dolphins to come back from.

RU would scatter 16 kills in the second set and 15 more in the third to advance easily in the late game.  Ricky Crumlish finished with 13 kills on his own while Corey Pieper registered 12.  Palencia would finish with 8 for the Dolphins while Tisbe finished with eight digs.

The Dolphins will turn back to CUNYAC competition next.  They will face Baruch College on Tuesday evening on the road at 6:00pm.