With the regular season winding down, the College of Staten Island finalized their CUNYAC slate with a 3-1 win over York College at the Sports & Recreation Center this evening as part of Senior Day, where CSI honored lone senior Danielle Ponsiglione. Final scores of the games were 25-16, 20-25, 25-18, and 25-23. By virtue of the win, CSI improved to 4-16 overall and 3-5 in CUNYAC play, while the Cardinals fell to 4-26, 2-6, respectively.
CSI opened the game crisp out of the gate, using a trio of Vasiliki Stergioula kills to grasp an early lead, never letting go while scoring a 25-16 final. The Dolphins, however, were error prone in game two, making a match high, seven kill errors in the second set, and giving another few points away on service errors. Meanwhile, York’s Stayce Kay Muirhead garnered a handful of her game-high 16 kills, posting 13 game kills next to 9 errors.
In a very pivotal game three, CSI fell behind early, 8-3, but then bounced back. With the score 10-8 in favor of York, Pola Poskrobko gave the Dolphins a shot in the arm via five straight service aces, her only aces of the match to put CSI up 13-8. CSI never trailed after that, garnering the 25-18 win.
The Dolphins were up from start to finish in game four, but this time the Cardinals came racing back. Down by as many as eight, York kept chipping away at the lead, finally getting it to 24-23 before Stergioula buried home the match-winning kill.
Senior Danielle Ponsiglione shined during the game, playing from start to finish, posting three kills with only 1 error on 18 attempts, earning eight assists and eight digs as well. CSI was led by Stergioula’s 10 kills, Samuel’s 16 assists and eight aces. Jean-Marie Lewandowski led the defensive with 20 digs. York was paced by Muirhead’s 16 kills while Pamela Yap posted 26 assists and Laureen Cay Oliver 15 digs.
By virtue of the win, CSI will finish No. 6 in the CUNYAC standings, although final CUNYAC contests are yet to be played. Though unofficial, it would appear that CSI would be matched up with Lehman College on Tuesday, November 1, in the opening round of the CUNYAC Championship Quarterfinals (venue and time remain TBA). CSI does have one final match remaining this coming Thursday on the road against St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn) at 7pm.
