The College of Staten Island women’s volleyball team was able to snap their five-match losing skid this afternoon at the CSI Sports & Recreation Center with a pair of wins over CUNYAC opponents Lehman and CCNY. The win over Lehman breaks a 14-match win streak the Lightning held over the Dolphins.

Staten Island (5-13, 4-3 CUNYAC), playing for the third and fourth time in a three-day span tallied 42 service aces over the pair of games which aided the Dolphins in their wins. Lehman (3-18, 2-4 CUNYAC) hit for just .033 against the Dolphins while CCNY (3-15, 1-5 CUNYAC) fared better by hitting .116.

Caitlin Esposito was sensational this afternoon, hitting .231 against the Lightning with 9 kills while increasing her mark in the match against CCNY to .143 hitting with 13 kills.  Jessica Cafiero came just one assist shy of tying her season high in assists in a game with 31 against the Beavers.  On the day, Cafiero tallied 52 assists, boosting her total to 234 on the year. Margaret O’Malley-Rebovich was excellent at the net this afternoon, tallying five solo blocks while hitting a team-high .400 against the Beavers with 9 kills. Vanessa Reyes had 13 kills on the day while Cassidy Iannariello tallied 17 digs.

For the Lightning in the opening match of the day, Sandra Izaguirre was the bright spot, hitting .125 with eight kills for Lehman. For the Beavers, it was Yasmine Bachtarzi leading the way with 13 kills.

Match 1: Staten Island 3, Lehman 1 (25-16, 25-13, 25-27, 25-20)

Esposito found success early on in the match collecting three kills with no errors, hitting a team-high .500 in the opening game as the Dolphins would swim to a 25-16 win in the opening game of the afternoon. Lehman hurt themselves, in the beginning, tallying five errors while hitting .000. Using their momentum from game one the Dolphins carried that over to the second game and were able to win 25-13. Lehman had the early lead, 8-3, however, a timeout by Staten Island would swing the momentum over the Dolphins coming out of the timeout. CSI would rally off a 6-1 run to bring the score level at 9.  The Lightning would take a two-point lead but got stuck at 11 as the Dolphins would go on a 10-0 run to take a 19-11 lead. Teresa Maresca was effective during that run, collecting four kills.

Lehman found new life in game three.  Falling behind 9-5, the Lightning would even it at 10 and stay neck-and-neck with the Dolphins for the rest of the game. The deadlock would eventually be broken when the Lightning took a 24-22 lead late in the set, causing the Dolphins to call a timeout to regroup.  The timeout would work for the Dolphins as they were able to knot it up at 25 before eventually falling 27-25 after an attacking error by the Dolphins. 

Staten Island held a 14-8 lead halfway through the fourth game which forced Lehman to call a timeout to try and cool off the surging Dolphins. The timeout talk would fall on deaf ears as the Dolphins would increase their lead to eight which forced Lehman to use their second timeout of the game. Lehman found success after that timeout and rifled off a 7-2 run, bringing them within four of the Dolphins and threatened to force a game five.  Staten Island was able to tally their final four points off of errors by the Lightning to increase their CUNYAC record to 3-3 on the year.

Match 2: Staten Island 3, City College of NY (25-15, 13-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-8)

After a two hour layoff, the Dolphins came into game one against the Beavers and remained strong.  CSI defeated CCNY 25-15 in game one led by Reyes and Maresca’s six kills. As a team, the Dolphins swung for .273 with eight total kills while the Beavers hit .231 with 10 kills and four errors. O’Malley-Rebovich helped extend the Dolphins’ lead with a pair of service aces during a 3-0 run late in the game. 

The Beavers were able to level the match at one after they had their best game, in terms of hitting, of the afternoon.  Hitting .333 with 9 kills and just one error, the Beavers were able to take a large 25-13 win.  The Dolphins had their worst hitting performance of the afternoon, hitting -.040 with seven errors on 25 total attacks. Yasmine Bachtarzi capitalized on three attempts late in the game that lifted the Dolphins past the Beavers.

The Dolphins returned to form in the third set and tallied their highest kill total against the Beavers with 13.  The game was close the entire time until CSI would go on a 6-1 run to take a 19-14 lead. The Beavers would bring it within two as the game drew towards the end, however, O’Malley-Rebovich was able to force bad plays with her serves to give the Dolphins a 2-1 lead.

Much like the Dolphins in the third game, the Beavers returned to form and tallied their highest kill total against the Dolphins with 12. CSI trailed the entire game and was unable to get going and string together a run to help them gain a lead. CCNY nearly gave up the lead late as they held a 24-21 lead but the Dolphins made it a one-point game.  The Beavers would go on to seal the deal and force a game five.

Heading into this afternoon’s game five against the Beavers the Dolphins were 0-1 on the year when a match went five games.  This afternoon was different as the Dolphins dominated their way to a win with a score of 15-8 to give them their first win streak of the season.

The Dolphins return to action on Thursday, October 12 when they host Albertus Magnus at 6:00 pm in the CSI Sports & Recreation Center for a non-conference match.