NEW YORK – On Thursday night, the City College of New York men's volleyball team welcomed New Jersey City University to Nat Holman Gymnasium. The Gothic Knights (6-6) earned a 25-17, 25-20, 25-19 victory to hand the Beavers (9-4) their second straight loss.
CCNY took an early 3-2 lead in the first set, but NJCU responded with a 13-3 run to open up a 15-6 advantage. After the Beavers got back within seven at 18-11, the Gothic Knights used a 6-3 spurt to reach set point. CCNY fought off three set points before NJCU closed out a 25-17 win. NJCU hit .500 (14 kills, two errors, 24 attempts) in the set, with its only two errors coming at the end of the frame.
After the Beavers scored the first three points of the second set, NJCU rattled off nine of the next 10 to go up 9-4. The Gothic Knights pushed their advantage to 13-6 before CCNY countered with a 4-2 rally to get back within 15-10. CCNY would get no closer, though, as NJCU took the set by a 25-20 count.
There were seven ties early in the third set. NJCU built a 4-1 cushion before CCNY rallied back to pull ahead, 10-9. However, the Gothic Knights claimed 15 of the next 21 points to build a 24-16 cushion. After the Beavers fought off three match points, NJCU finished off the 3-0 victory with a 25-19 set win.
Carlos Maldonado Madrid (Honduras) paced the Beavers with 10 kills and six digs.
Vukasin Bozic (Belgrade, Serbia) added seven kills and five digs, while
Omar Dervisevic (East Elmhurst, NY) had five kills, all in the third set.
Andrew Chan (Flushing, NY) handed out 21 assists, and
Abdullah Khalid (Hicksville, NY) tallied two service aces. As a team, CCNY hit .095 (30-22-84) in the match.
For the Gothic Knights, Jonathan Andrews led the way with 11 kills on .529 hitting. He also recorded six digs and two aces. Brandon DaSilva and Jeffry Rodriguez, meanwhile, posted six kills apiece. Leo Ferrari had 30 assists to go along with three aces, and Richard Valentin collected a match-high seven digs. NJCU hit a combined .329 (33-10-70).
The Beavers (0-0 CUNYAC) begin their CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) schedule on Tuesday night, when they visit Lehman (5-13, 0-2 CUNYAC) at 7 p.m.
