Men’s Volleyball Picks Up Two Skyline Wins Over Purchase and Mount Saint Vincent

PURCHASE, N.Y. — The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 set deficit to defeat host Purchase College in five sets (25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-10) before downing the College of Mount Saint Vincent in four sets (25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 27-25) in a Skyline Conference tri-match on Saturday.

Senior outside hitter Tim Driscoll (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) paced the attack putting away 28 kills on the day with 36 digs to help the Bears (3-15, 3-2 Skyline) to their first wins in program history over either opponent.

St. Joseph's 3, Purchase 2 (25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-10)

The Bears took a commanding 11-2 lead to open the match, but the Panthers within one late at 19-18, before the Bears closed out the set winning six of the final seven points. Purchase took a close second set to level the match and won the third, breaking away at the 16-all mark with a 4-1 run and the Bears couldn't close the gap.

St. Joseph's led for the majority of the fourth despite facing a 12-7 discrepancy in kills as the hosts committed 16 combined attack and serving errors to the bears who committed just four miscues. Holding on to a 16-14 lead, the Bears won four straight points and carried that advantage to force a deciding fifth set.

Kills from Driscoll and Sean Salomons (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peters) sparked a 4-0 run to open the fifth. The navy and gray continued the momentum and never let the Panthers any closer than three, overwhelmed the hosts with a .368 hitting frame (8-1-19) led by a trio of kills each from Driscoll and Salomons.

St. Joseph's 3, Mount Saint Vincent 1 (25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 27-25)

The Bears jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first and never trailed taking the opening set and trailed briefly in the second and led by as many as five before holding off a late surge by the Dolphins to take a two-set advantage. Despite four kills from Salomons and three from Driscoll, Mount Saint Vincent took set three pulling away with an early 4-0 run and never letting the Bears close the gap.

The Dolphins raced out to a 9-1 lead to open the fourth but the Bears managed to close the gap, wiping out three set points, back-to-back kills from Stephen Eddy (Glendale, N.Y./Christ the King) and Salomons knotting the frame at 24-all. SJC continued their run of four unanswered to gain a match point, but couldn't convert but, a Salomons kill brought a second match point at 26-25 with a Dolphin miscue sealing the Bears first win in the all-time series.

For the Bears

• Tim Driscoll recorded a pair of double-doubles finishing with 15 kills, 20 digs and four aces against Purchase and 13 kills and 16 digs against the Dolphins.
• Sean Salomons reached double-digit kills in the win over CMSV pounding 10 kills and stuffing three blocks (all solo) and had eight kills and four blocks (two solo) in the win over the Panthers.
• Stephen Eddy slammed seven kills in each end of the tri-match and led the back row with 40 digs on the day. He also had three blocks in the win over Purchase (two solo).
• Dejon St. Rose-Cuffy (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Loughlin) pounded a career-high nine kills against Mount Saint Vincent and chipped in five in the opener.
• Timothy Boyd (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) handed out 58 assists and brought up 20 digs on the day.

Next Up for the Bears

St. Joseph's heads to Jamaica, N.Y. for a non-conference matchup against York College on Wednesday (Mar. 27). First serve is set for 7:30 p.m. with live stats and video available on SJCBears.com.