Men's Volleyball Reaches 10-Win Mark Rolling Past Webb on Senior Night

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Led by senior Raul Urshela (Orlando, Fla./Colonial), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball pounded 40 kills and cruised to a straight-set victory, 3-0 (27-25, 25-12, 25-19), over Webb in their regular season finale at The Hill Center on Tuesday night.

Win the win, the Bears (10-9) reach double digit wins for the first time in program history and it guarantees the first .500-or-better campaign in seven seasons. St. Joseph's also locks up third place in the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setting up a semifinal match against No. 2 seed Pratt Institute in the HVIAC Tournament semifinals next Wednesday.

Urshela was near flawless in his final home game in a Bears uniform, pounding a match-best 17 kills on 25 swings, setting a new Bears single-game record .520 hitting percentage. The senior also brought up six digs and had five blocks.

Junior Thomas Kennedy (Breezy Point, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) added 10 kills, the only other attacker in double figures, adding six digs and three blocks.

In his first game back on the court after an injury sustained in the season opener, senior Clyde Delacruz (Brooklyn, N.Y./Frederick Douglas Acad. II) pounded six kills against only one error and stuffed three blocks. Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) also chipped in six kills with a match-high nine digs.

Norrin Martinez (Maspeth, N.Y./Holy Cross) dished out 33 assists, directing the offense to a .287 hitting percentage.

Brian Mills led the Webbies (1-5, 1-5 HVIAC) with six kills and Tyler Grey-Hoehn and Cody Owen added four kills each.

The Bears raced out to a 20-11 lead in the opening set but the Webbies clawed back into the set and erased four set points before the Bears prevailed with a 27-25 set win.

But unlike the earlier meeting this season that went to five sets, St. Joseph's closed out the match in three sets, hitting .417 (15-5-24) in the second stanza and .312 (14-4-32) in the third set to runaway with the match.

St. Joseph's will wrap up their 2015 campaign in their final HVIAC Tournament—joining the Skyline Conference next season—on Wednesday, April 15 at Yeshiva University. The No. 3 Bears will take on Clinton Hill rivals Pratt Institute in the semifinal round at 6 p.m. Live stats will be available on SJCBears.com