The College of Staten Island men’s volleyball team fell for the sixth time this season, second in a row, at the hands of reigning CUNYAC Champions, Hunter College. The Hawks swept the Dolphins 3-0 and improved to 3-0, 13-2 while the Dolphins fell to 1-2, 2-6 overall.
Hunter College 3, Staten Island 0 (11-25, 19-25, 11-25)
In the opening stanza the Dolphins fell behind 0-4 as they had trouble getting to the net to block the attacking attempts by Ben Crusinberry. The Dolphins were able to get on the board when Mark Palencia spotted a weak spot in the defense and served it to collect a service ace. The Dolphins would acquire another point via a Hunter attacking error before surrendering the ball back to the Hawks. With the ball back in their possession the Hawks went on a 7-0 run and stretched their lead to 13-3. Staten Island was unable dig themselves out of such a deep hole and would go on to lose the opening set at Hunter College.
The second set was the Dolphins’ most prolific set of the night as they would give Hunter a run for their money before eventually falling 19-25. CSI would take control of the second set of the night and go up 6-3 over Hunter College. The Hawks would tie the set up at eight and then rip off a 9-0 run to open up the set and regain control of the set on their home court. The Dolphins seemed to have run out of steam and were only able to bring it within six as the Hawks were able to go on a collect the second win of the night.
The final set was much like the first as the top of the table Hawks, controlled the whole set and would cruise to a 25-11 win to stay perfect within the CUNYAC. The Dolphins struggled to string together more than two consecutive points in the final set of the night while their opponents were able to continually string together four in a row.
The Dolphins will return to action on Saturday, March 4 where they will head to Brooklyn, NY to partake in non-conference tri-match against St. Joseph’s College – Brooklyn and Rutgers-Newark starting at 11:00 am.
