NEW YORK – After playing nine straight away from home, the City College of New York men's volleyball team finally returned to Nat Holman Gymnasium on Thursday night.  The Beavers (9-3) got off to a good start, winning the first set of their matchup with John Jay, but were unable to hold on, as the Bloodhounds (4-10) rallied for a 19-25, 25-16, 25-14, 25-20 victory.

There were nine tie scores early in the first set before CCNY rattled off six straight points to take a 14-9 lead.  John Jay got back within two at 16-14, but Elijah Parks (Long Beach, NY) followed with a kill that started a 4-1 run and pushed the Beavers' advantage back to five at 20-15.  A Carlos Maldonado Madrid (Honduras) kill finished off a 25-19 set win in which CCNY posted a .414 hitting percentage (15 kills, three errors, 29 attempts).

John Jay raced out to an 11-6 lead in the second set, but the Beavers responded with a 5-0 run to even the score at 11-11.  The Bloodhounds claimed 12 of the next 15 points, though, to open up a 23-14 cushion, and John Jay took the frame by a 25-16 count.

CCNY scored the first two points of the fourth set and quickly extended that margin to 6-4.  John Jay countered with an 11-4 run to open up a 15-10 lead before a Maldonado Madrid kill and Vukasin Bozic (Belgrade, Serbia) service ace brought the Beavers back within three at 15-12.  The Bloodhounds ended the set on a 10-2 spurt, however, and went ahead in the match, 2-1, with a 25-14 win.

In the fourth set, the Beavers again took the early lead, pulling ahead 4-2.  After a 16-5 John Jay run put the Bloodhounds in front 17-10, CCNY went on a 6-2 rally to trim their deficit to three points, 19-16.  The Beavers would get no closer, though, as John Jay won the set 25-20 to close out the 3-1 victory. 

It was the first of two meetings this season between the CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) foes, but counted as a non-conference match towards the CUNYAC standings.  The rematch will take place at John Jay on March 31 in each team's regular season finale.

Abdullah Khalid (Hicksville, NY) smashed 13 kills and committed just one error in 24 attempts to hit .500 in the match.  Bozic had eight kills to go along with 13 digs and two aces, while Maldonado Madrid finished with seven kills and 12 digs.  Jonathan Liao (Jackson Heights, NY) tallied a match-high 16 digs, as CCNY held a 58-49 edge in that category.  Andrew Chan (Flushing, NY) handed out 35 assists for the Beavers, who hit a combined .067 (36-28-120).

For the Bloodhounds, Krystian Surdel notched a double-double with 17 kills and 10 digs.  He also registered four blocks.  Alejandro Gallardo added 13 kills, while Jack Nugent had nine kills on .438 hitting to go along with eight blocks.  Dylan Senkiw finished with 36 assists and eight digs, and Godwin Sequeira paced John Jay with 14 digs.  The Bloodhounds hit .254 (50-17-130) as a team and outblocked CCNY 11-1.

The Beavers will now have a week off before returning to action.  CCNY welcomes NJCU (4-4) to Nat Holman Gymnasium next Thursday at 7 p.m.