On the opening day of College of Staten Island men’s volleyball history, the Dolphins soaked in the experience, but suffered a pair of 3-0 defeats at the hands of Ramapo College and The City College of New York as part of a non-conference tri-match at Ramapo’s campus in Mahwah, NJ. In the opener, Ramapo defeated CSI by scores of 25-13, 25-10, and 25-9, before CCNY won their three matches by tighter scores of 25-19, 25-22, and 25-15. CSI fell to 0-2 on the season.
After a couple of seasons as a club sport at the College and then another month or practice, optimism was on high as CSI finally took the court in its first organized match, but a seasoned Ramapo team did have its way with the inexperienced Dolphins unit. CSI’s first-ever point was scored via a Brian Sheydvasser kill on a feed from Brandon Lei. The Roadrunners, however, jumped out to a quick, 5-2, edge in the first set, and later extended to a 9-3 lead. Ramapo kept CSI off-pace from there to win the first set, using a big 4-0 run after CSI cut the Ramapo lead to 12-6.
In the second set, CSI tried to take advantage of several Ramapo service errors, and also added a Justin Edwardsen kill, but a 7-1 RC run midway through the frame kept plenty of distance between the two sides. In the final set, the Roadrunners jumped out to a big 14-5 edge, before cruising to the 25-9 decision.
CSI was led by Edwardsen’s three kills, while Lei added four assists and Song Shin Low led all Dolphins with five digs. Ramapo had 37 kills to the Dolphins’ six, and were led by Moe Travernier’s 9 kills, Garrett Fitzsimmons’ 17 assists and Peter Desvousges’ four digs.
CSI was a lot more competitive in the second contest against CCNY, spreading out 17 kills and 39 defensive digs. The Dolphins took a quick 3-0 edge in the first set and later extended to a 7-3 lead on Shin Low’s kill. But the Beavers came back due to a roaring 7-0 run that gave them a 12-10 edge. CSI would later take the lead, 17-16, but from there, CCNY came alive again and finished on a 9-2 run to take the first set.
In the second set the teams battled through four lead changes but again the Dolphins were on the falling side. They took an 11-9 lead on another Sheydvasser kill, but CCNY answered with a 4-0 spurt to take the lead back and would not give it up again. CSI pulled to within 17-15 on a CCNY service error but then CCNY ripped off another three points to extend to a five-point lead. Two more kills by Sheydvasser tried to get CSI closer in the final moments, but CCNY ended up putting it away, 25-22.
In the final round, CSI again had a slim early lead and CCNY came roaring back before taking the win 25-15, and sending CSI home empty. Sheydvasser led all CSI scorers with 6 kills while Lei added 15 assists and Shin Low had a match-high 13 digs. Anthony Reyes was the force for CCNY, collecting 17 kills and a team-leading 12 digs.
