Staten Island, NY | The College of Staten Island men’s volleyball team gave visiting Baruch College all they could handle tonight, but in the end the Bearcats, undefeated in CUNYAC play, took a straight-set match, winning 3-0 at The Tank this evening as part of conference play.  The Dolphins fell to 2-7 overall and 0-4 inside of the CUNYAC, while the Bearcats lifted to 7-8, 4-0, respectively.

As the match wore on CSI got more competitive with the Bearcats, and were ahead for a good stretch of the final set before Baruch staged a comeback to make sure that CSI did not land on the register this evening.  For Baruch they improved to 8-0 all-time over CSI, having never surrendered a set.

In the opening set, the Bearcats got out to a 4-1 lead, thanks to kills from Edward Grinberg and Steven Lopez, and later extended to 12-5 thanks to another Lopez kill and an ace from Evan Takos.  From there, Baruch was able to coast, despite a pair of kills from CSI’s Christian Dumadag and Mark Palencia late.

In the second set, a poor start doomed CSI, as Baruch raced out to the match’s first six points, finalized by a Stephen Roach kill.  That proved to be a good buffer for the visitors, as the Bearcats later extended to 17-9 on a Nicholas Godino kill.  Down by a bunch, CSI did come to life at the end thanks to an 8-4 run to close the second set.  At one point Shemuel Arthurs held serve for four straight Dolphins points in the run.

In the final set, CSi had started to piece together some solid volleys and good runs.  CSI got off to a 5-2 lead, tempered by kills from Zebin Guo and Tairou Diaman.  A Herman Liu kill then made it 9-5, before Baruch started to turn the tide.  The Bearcats tied it at 13-13 on CSI error, but the Dolphins did not give up the lead until an Artem Zinkin kill made it 19-18 in BC’s favor.  A late kill by Dumadag couldn’t give enough momentum to CSI as they would ultimately fall, 25-21.

Roach and Zinkin led all Bearcats with 10 kills apiece, while Grinberg had 13 assists and Godino led defensively with 10 digs.  Dumadag posted seven kills for CSI, while Adil El Hadda led the Dolphins with 13 assists and Michael Liang had 13 defensive digs, a game-high.

CSI will now be idle until Sunday, March 13, when they take on both Medgar Evers College and Brooklyn College in CUNYAC tri-match action beginning at 11:00am at The Tank.