Men's Volleyball Falls in HVIAC Tournament Championship Game to Yeshiva

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The No. 2 seeded St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team advanced to the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) Tournament championship game for the first time in school history with an impressive 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-8) semifinal victory over No. 3 seed Webb Institute, but came up short in the title game to hosts and No. 1 seed Yeshiva University, falling in straight sets, 3-0 (23-25, 16-25, 16-25) on Thursday evening at the Max Stern Athletic Center.

St. Joseph's (8-12) saw their season-high four-match winning streak come to an end with the loss in the championship game, but did set a new single-season record for most wins in a season. Yeshiva (10-17) prevailed in straight sets against Sarah Lawrence (0-25) in the first semifinal and dispatched the Bears for their second consecutive title and third overall. Webb (3-8) concludes the season with four straight losses.

After going to five sets against the Webbies on Tuesday, the Bears were ready this time around as they took a 7-5 early lead and turned it into a comfortable 13-5 cushion with a 6-0 run. St. Joseph's cruised the rest of the set as junior Raul Urshela (Orlando, Fla./Colonial) pounded five of his match-high 15 kills in the opening set to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

The second set saw another strong start by St. Joseph's as they jumped out to a 7-3 lead before Webb cut it to 9-8, but the Bears would never trail in the set. St. Joseph's withstood a late Webbies charge at the end of the set to take a commanding 2-0 advantage.

The final stanza saw Webb score the first point of the set for their only lead of the match, but the Bears rattled off eight straight points to take an 8-1 lead and coasted the rest of the way as they hit an impressive .478 in the frame with only one error.

Urshela hit a strong .423 during the match and was helped out by sophomore Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) and junior Clyde Delacruz (Brooklyn, N.Y./Frederick Douglas Acad. II) who each slammed down seven kills with Delacruz serving up a match-high five aces. Senior Iqbal Husain (West Palm Beach, Fla./Palm Beach Gardens) helped lead a Bears attack that hit .360 on the match with 27 assists.

With St. Joseph's rounding into top form against the Webbies it looked like the Bears would give the defending champion Maccabees, a team they had never beaten, all they could handle in the championship game.

The opening set saw the hosts jump out to an 11-7 lead, but St. Joseph's responded by getting within one, 14-13, and looked like they could hang with Yeshiva. The set continued to go back-and-forth with the score tied at 23-23 late as the Bears tied it up on a Kostikas kill forcing a Maccabee timeout. Yeshiva came out of the break with two consecutive points on errors by the Bears to take the set and a 1-0 edge.

Yeshiva built it up their lead in the second set to 16-12 before the Bears scored two unanswered to cut it to 16-14 and give themselves a chance. The No. 1 seed put away any hopes of a St. Joseph's comeback as they went on a 6-0 run to open up a 22-14 lead and finished off the set for a 2-0 lead.

The Bears facing the tough task of coming back from down two sets scored the first point in the third stanza, but Yeshiva put together five unanswered to take the lead for good and ended the set with three consecutive points to seal the title.

Urshela finished the match with a team-high 10 kills and had six digs and five blocks, while Kostikas put down four kills and dug up a match-high 20 digs. Delacruz had seven kills and Husain dished out 20 assists and had eight digs in his final collegiate match.

Husain concludes his Bears career as the school's all-time assist leader with 1178 and finished with 363 career digs in 76 matches. Fellow senior Javier Bosque (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) had four kills in the win versus Webb and finishes his St. Joseph's career with 47 kills, 160 digs and 21 total blocks.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORES

• After hitting .360 in the semifinals, the Bears only hit .046 in the finals.
• St. Joseph's was strong at the net in the championship game, finishing with five block solos and six block assists.
• The Bears hitting percentage decreased each set in the championship game going from .195 to .000 to .-.075.

THE BEAR FACTS

• The Bears evened up the all-time series with the Webbies at 7-7, but fell to 0-14 all-time against the Maccabees. 
• The eight wins on the season surpasses the previous record of seven set last year.