Bears Volleyball Sees Two-Game Winning Streak Snapped by Cooper Union

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Despite double-digit kills by reigning Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference (HVMAC) Player of the Week sophomore Raul Urshela (Orlando, FL/Colonial), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team fell to the Cooper Union Hawks 3-1 (25-13, 18-25, 25-15, 25-20) on Friday night at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The Bears fall to 2-6 and see their two-game winning streak snapped while losing their first game at home. The Hawks improve to 2-3 on the season.

St. Joseph's was led by Urshela and Martin Torres (Ozone Park, NY/St. Francis Prep) who each contributed more than five kills while Mohamed El Amri (Tangier, Morocco) led the team in digs. HVMAC assists per set leader Iqbal Husain (West Palm Beach, FL/Palm Beach Gardens) had over 20 assists for the Bears.

The Hawks were led by Sasha Kutznetov and Andrew Tam who each put down double-digit kills while Eric Kim and Jonathan Ostrander each brought up double-digit digs.

Cooper Union dominated the first set leading for almost the entire set with St. Joseph's tying the score three times but the Hawks would take care of the rest of the set with a 19-7 run after the score was tied 6-6.

The second set saw the Bears jump out to a 7-0 lead and they would not look back as they took the set easily as the Hawks would only get as close as five points for the remainder of the set.

Cooper Union took the third set going on a 21-11 spurt to close the set after the score was tied 4-4 in the early stages of the set.

The fourth and final set saw a hard fought battle between the two teams with the Hawks building a 19-10 advantage and it looked like they would take the final set easily but the Bears fought back and came within three, 22-19 but the deficit would prove too much to overcome.

More details to follow....

St. Joseph's returns to action today as they travel to the Bronx to take on Lehman College with first serve set for 12:00 p.m.