The College of Staten Island women’s volleyball team hosted John Jay College in the final CUNYAC match of the season at the CSI Sports & Recreation Center. The Dolphins battled but were unable to overcome the Bloodhounds as John Jay would sweep Staten Island, 3-0. The loss knocks the Dolphins down to 5-15 (4-4 CUNYAC) while the Bloodhounds improved to 10-10 (5-2 CUNYAC).
Margaret O’Malley-Rebovich shined once again for the Dolphins, hitting .182 against the Bloodhounds with six kills. O’Malley-Rebovich was also effective on the defensive side of the net, tallying two solo blocks, second to only Teresa Maresca who collect four on the night. Jessica Cafiero tallied 13 assists and one service ace in tonight’s match.
Match: John Jay 3, Staten Island 0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-18)
The Dolphins and Bloodhounds stayed neck-and-neck for a majority of the first set. Teresa Maresca gave the Dolphins a 9-6 lead after ripping off a pair of service aces. The Dolphins’ lead would not hold for long as the Bloodhounds would come back and knot the set up at 9 before going on a 5-1 run. Once the Bloodhounds gained the lead they never looked back as they didn’t relinquish the lead the rest of the match.
Staten Island would have their worst hitting performance of the night in the second set, hitting -.059 as a team with five kills and seven errors. As a result of the self-inflicted errors, the Dolphins would fall behind heavy in the early goings of the set, 9-2, before a Bloodhound serving error would snap the 9-1 run. CSI struggled to stop Brittany Steele in tonight’s match as they allowed her to amass 16 kills while hitting .286. The women would fight back and bring it within five, 15-20, but more errors would set the Dolphins back and hand the set over to the Bloodhounds, allowing them to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The only positive hitting performance of the night for the Dolphins came in the third set where they would hit .148 as a squad, tallying five kills with just one error. However, the Bloodhounds also had their best performance of the night with 17 kills on .154 hitting. CSI was able to go back-and-forth with the Bloodhounds for a majority of the final set of the night, however, Steele was just too much for the Dolphins as she would secure the final three points for the Bloodhounds to close out the match.
The Dolphins will return to action on Saturday, October 21 when they travel to Bronxville, NY to take part in a non-conference tri-match against Sarah Lawrence and Lehman College.
