Newark, NJ | The College of Staten Island men’s volleyball squad continued their road, non-conference, slate this afternoon falling in two-straight matches to Rutgers-Newark and the College of St. Elizabeth in a tri-match played at the Rutgers’ campus. CSI fell to a season-opening 0-3 overall, while RU-Newark improved to 6-1 and CSE to 3-7.
MATCH ONE – RU-NEWARK 3, STATEN ISLAND 0 (25-14, 25-10, 25-16)
In the opener, CSI ran into a tough Scarlet Raiders team that did not relent the entire way. The Dolphins did a valiant job keeping balls in play throughout the afternoon, but in the end the home side sent waves of attacks through to the CSI back line, finding a lot of open space en route to the win.
In the opening set, CSI’s James Yi and Christian Dumadag scored a kill each to kept CSI into it early, but then a 6-2 run by RU started to put distance between the sides. Justin Sandy scored on two of the kills for the home side. Ricky Crumlish then took over for the Raiders, hitting on three kills, the final to clinch it at 25-14.
In the second set, RU led from start to finish and used a decisive 7-1 run early to take an 11-4 lead, helped along by four Jalen Sorrell kills. Later, an 8-1 run made it 22-7, as Kyle Loesner connected on a pair of put-aways.
In the final set, CSI got the closest it would get to a win, taking a 5-4 lead early on thanks to Yi and Herman Liu kills. A 6-1 run, however, gave the Raiders back the advantage, opening up the game at 12-7, as Brandon Frank and Nicholas Arce-Cox connected on kills. CSI closed to within 14-11, but then an 8-2 spurt by RU sealed the match en route to a 25-16 final set.
RU scattered 45 kills to CSI’s 22, and posted 36 defensive digs to CSI’s 26. Sorrell led a balanced attack with nine kills while Sandy and Corey Pieper scored on seven each. Arnan Romua earned 23 assists, while Jake Connors led all with nine digs. For CSI, Mark Palencia led the Dolphins with nine kills. Zebin Guo paced CSi with 22 assists while Michael Liang posted eight digs.
MATCH TWO – ST. ELIZABETH 3, STATEN ISLAND 1 (25-17, 16-25, 25-17, 25-17)
The Dolphins picked up their first win in a set this season, but were unable to piece it together for two more, as they dropped the first, third and fourth sets to fall to the Eagles by a 3-1 count.
In the opening set, CSI got off to a 3-1 lead, and later led 6-4 thanks to two Palencia kills, but a following 7-1 run by CSE took control, as CJ Koskulitz and Justin Millan posted aces and CSI errored on three attacks. CSI rebounded well, eventually coming back and taking a 14-13 lead on a Dumadag kills, but the Eagles stayed poised and finished the set on a 12-3 run to end the frame. Two Josh Ramos aces got CSE started and CSi was plagued by three more attack errors in the run.
CSI finally got in the register overall by taking the second set. The Dolphins raced out to a 6-2 lead, led by Yi’s kill and service ace. Liu and Palencia would add kills later to make it 13-9. CSI made its biggest move after CSE cut the lead to just 17-14. Dumadag started an 8-2 finish with a kill and added an ace later along with two Liu kills to clinch it for the Dolphins.
After set two, it was the Eagles’ turn to show resiliency and bounce back. The Eagles started by taking a 4-1 lead, capped by a Ramos kill. CSi fought back and scored the next five points on Palencia’s service, but then Ramos got an ace of his own to help CSE back up, 10-8.
CSI would cut the lead to 11-9, but then CSE went on a crucial 6-2 run to make it 17-11, and from there they were able to go back-and-forth for a 25-17 win. Then in the fourth set, CSI went up 7-4, before CSE caught fire and took back the lead.
With CSE up, 13-12, CSI asked for time but it did not result well, as the Eagles used it to spark a 7-2 run, helped by a Ramos and Chino Singalivo kill. CSI would eventually fall, 25-17.
In the second matchup, Ramos led the Eagles with 10 kills and six blocks, followed by Millan’s six kills. Singalivo finished with 21 assists, while Emmanuel Adam was tops with nine digs. For CSI, Palencia was the leader with 10 kills while Dumadag had nine. Guo was tops with 32 assists, while Liang finished with 11 digs.
For CSI they will get back to their schedule on Wednesday, when they travel to play Purchase College at 7pm, looking for their first victory on the young season.
