The men’s volleyball team will host a tri-match against conference opponents Brooklyn College and non-conference Wilkes University at the Sports & Recreation Center starting at noon. After clinching a playoff spot after a big conference win over York College, Staten Island will look to close their season with a win. Tonight the Dolphins will honor two seniors, Danil Kukovitskiy and Khaleeq Baum, prior to the start of the match,
CSI vs WILKES AND BROOKLYN COLLEGE AT-A-GLANCE
Matchup: CSI (7-13 Overall, 2-5 CUNYAC) vs. Wilkes University (7-15 overall) Brooklyn College (12-10 overall, 5-3 CUNYAC)
Where: Sports & Recreation Center – 2800 Victory Blvd – Staten Island, NY
First serve: 12:00 pm
All-Time Series: CSI leads Brookyln 3-1, CSI and Wilkes University first meeting ever
Live Stats: www.sidearmstats.com/csi/mvball
Players To Watch (CSI): The Dolphins clinched playoffs with a huge conference win against York, where Mark Palencia (12 kills), Khaleeq Baum (11 kills) and Anthony Vigilante (10 kills) became lethal for the Dolphins offense. Palencia is still nationally ranked with 8.21 attacks per set. Ronald Tisbe, who led the team with 24 digs against York, joins Palencia in the rankings as Tisbe became nationally ranked in digs averaging 2.50 digs per set. Setter Brandon Lei was a crutial aspect to the Dolphins offense. Lei had 34 assists against York and is second on the team with 109 assists. Danil Kukovitskiy will be the Dolphins key defender where he has a team-high of 35 blocks.
Players To Watch (WU): The Colonels have three players in triple-digits in kills. John Pietrzyk is the team-leader, also nationally ranked with 3.06 kills per set, with 214 kills. Thomas Bogarowski is next with 143 kills and Dylan Smith is third with 107 kills. Just making the national ranks, setter Daniel Sales is 50th in the nation with 526 assists overall and an average of 6.83 assists per set. Team-leader in digs, Kyle Prince, is another Colonel player who is nationally ranked with 2.80 digs per set. Prince has an overall 213 digs.
Players To Watch (BC): The Bulldogs, like the Colonels, have three players with off 100-plus kills: Vaughn Titus (137 kills), Rudy Zhao (133 kills), and Ahmed Moawad (126 kills). Eddie Peng, the Bulldogs leading setter, has 302 assists and Sayuj Zachariah is second with 181 assists. Joining Dolphins Tisbe, Bulldog Snigdho Hassan is nationally ranked with 118 digs overall and an average of 2.57 digs per set. Moaz Choudhary (38 blocks) and Moawad (32 blocks) are the Bulldogs leading blockers for the season.
News & Notes: This is the final regulation game in the Dolphins 2017 season before playoffs. The Dolphins and Wilkes University are going in blind as they never met before. Staten Island went up against the Bulldogs in a tri-match with Medgar Evers and the Dolphins dropped to an 0-3 loss to Brooklyn. Palencia posted a season high of 16 kills, despite the lopsided loss to the Bulldogs. Kukovitskiy racked in 10 kills, three aces, and one block. The Dolphins will look to close out their regular season play on top before they head into the Quarterfinals against Lehman College.
