The College of Staten men’s volleyball team took on Medgar Evers College tonight in a CUNYAC match at the CSI Sports & Recreation Center in Staten Island, NY. Tonight was a special night as it was not only the final regular season match of the year but it was also senior night for Justin Edwardsen, one of the pioneers in starting the men’s volleyball program at the College of Staten Island two years ago. The Dolphins would stumble at first but regain their composure enroute to a 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-19, 25-16) win to finish the season 8-19 overall and 4-12 in the CUNYAC. The Cougars fell to 2-24 overall and 0-17 with the loss.
Medgar Evers College opened up the match with explosive play which lifted the Cougars to a 1-0 lead over the Dolphins. The final score did not dictate the way the set was played however, as the Dolphins had a huge 17-9 lead midway through the set led by Kevin Rosero who strung together three straight kills for the Dolphins. Staten Island saw the momentum slip away from them as the Cougars started gain some steam and go on a 7-1 run which forced the Dolphins to call a timeout. The timeout wasn’t enough to stop the Cougars as they already had built up the confidence they needed to topple the Dolphins 27-25.
After losing their large lead in the opening stanza, the Dolphins came into the second set with a different mindset. The Cougars, still confident from their opening win, battled with the Dolphins going back-and-forth as neither team was able to get a foothold in the set. The Cougars would tie the set up at 19 apiece before Khaleeq Baum found his rhythm and crushed two kills to put the Dolphins up 21-19. Medgar Evers seemed to have run out of steam as Jamal Chance had an opportunity to shrink the lead but saw his attacking attempt go straight into the net and give the Dolphins a 23-19. The Cougars refused to back down and continued to fight however Song Shin Low received a set from Brandon Lei and sent it flying back down to the court to tie the match up 1-1 with a 25-21 win.
The third set the Dolphins had the Cougars on their heels and once again jumped out to a big 17-9 lead after several errors by Medgar Evers. The Cougars committed 9 errors in the third set which is the most they committed the entire match. This time the Dolphins would hold onto their lead as they began contesting the shots at the net which made the Cougar attackers think twice about where they wanted to hit the ball which led to free points for the Dolphins. CSI would go on to take the third set 25-19.
The final set of the match saw the Dolphins firing on all cylinders as they seemed to get an energy boost from senior Edwardsen who joined them for the final set. Edwardsen would tally four assists on seven attacks with no errors in the final set. CSI took a large and kept on rolling as they tallied 15 kills as a team. The Dolphins would go on to win the match with a 25-16 win in the fourth and final set.
Rosero led the Dolphins with 17 kills on 39 attacks and a block, while Baum tallied 13 kills on 30 attacks with two solo blocks. Brandon Lei collected 46 assists in the win and Ronald Tisbe would go on to lead the team with 11 digs.
The Dolphins with either get the seven or eight seed depending on Brooklyn College’s result tonight and with take on either Hunter College or Baruch College in the CUNYAC Quarterfinals on April 6 at 6:00 pm.
