Men's Volleyball Victorious on Senior Night in Straight Sets Over Sarah Lawrence

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team picked up their second straight win and honored their seniors with a straight-set, 3-0 (27-25, 28-26, 25-13) victory over Sarah Lawrence College in Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Brooklyn Technical High School on Thursday evening.

The Bears (6-11, 3-2 HVIAC) assemble their first win streak of the season and sweep the season series with the Gryphons (0-24, 0-6 HVIAC).

Celebrating their final home game in a Bears uniform in front of a robust crowd, senior Iqbal Husain (West Palm Beach, Fla./Palm Beach Gardens) handed out 22 assists and had three blocks and Javier Bosque (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) brought up 11 digs and added a kill and a block.

Reigning HVIAC Player of the Week Raul Urshela (Orlando, Fla./Colonial) paced the Bears with an all-around effort slamming down a team-high-tying 10 kills, four aces and six blocks, both match highs. Clyde Delacruz contributed to the attack with a career-high 10 kills and stuffed three blocks (two solo). Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) anchored the defense with a match-high 16 digs, also landing five kills.

St. Joseph's matched a team-record 10 blocks in the victory – also set against Sarah Lawrence last season – with five different Bears tallying a block.

Ishaan Pujari led the Gryphons with a 19-kill, 15-dig double-double.

The visitors led by as many as three points on two occasions in the opening set before the Bears won eight of 10 points to take a 23-20 lead. Sarah Lawrence fought off three set points to extend the set before back-to-back kills from Delacruz gave the Bears the set.

Both squads grinded out a close second stanza that saw 11 ties and three lead changes and neither team leading by more than three points. The Gryphons would give a scare extending the set again after erasing two Bears' set points, but a Urshela kill followed by a Gryphon error sealed the set.

Unlike the first two sets, which saw neither team pull away, the St. Joseph's jumped out to an early lead in the third and never looked back. The Bears managed just four kills in the set, but stuffed four blocks and held the Gryphons to a negative hitting percentage to cruise to the straight-set win.

NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS – WEBB

St. Joseph's will close out the regular season with an HVIAC matchup at Webb College on Tuesday, April 8th starting at 7 p.m.

Win or lose, both squads will meet again two days later in the semifinal round of the HVIAC Tournament at Yeshiva University on Thursday, April 10 at 6 p.m.