Women's Volleyball Advances to HVWAC Semis Rolling Past Yeshiva in Straight Sets

NEW YORK, NY – In the opening round of the 2010 Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament, the #4 St. Joseph's College women's volleyball team dismissed the #5 Yeshiva Maccabees in straight sets, 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-17), repeating the result from their regular season encounter. Senior outside hitter Yliane Ulloa (Queens, NY/Midwood) paced the Lady Bears with 15 kills and a season-high .467 hitting percentage.

The opening frame was highly contested with 13 ties and seven lead changes. Both teams remained tied at the 20-20 mark before St. Joseph's pulled away with a 5-1 run to close the set, capped a Ulloa kill who started off hot with nine kills and no errors in the set.

The Lady Bears jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the second set and never looked back taking a wire-to-wire victory in the second set and pulling away halfway through the third set to advance to the semifinals.

Junior Kim Matthews (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) finished with a 13 kill, 15 dig double-double, her sixth of the season. Senior Melissa Simo (Brooklyn, NY/Midwood) handed out 35 assists, the most in the conference this season for a three-set match, and dug up 12 for her fourth double-double this season.

Ariella Perl led the Yeshiva with six kills while Dena Shayne contributed 16 digs.

Next up for St. Joseph's (7-18, 2-3 HVWAC), a semifinal matchup against #1 Sarah Lawrence College (8-8, 4-1 HVWAC), who took a five-set decision from the Lady Bears in the regular season. In the other semifinal, #2 New Rochelle squares off against #6 Pratt who upset #3 Medgar Evers in the other quarterfinal match earlier this evening.

Both semifinals and championship games will be held at the College of New Rochelle Wellness Center on Sunday, October 31st, with the semifinals starting at noon. St. Joseph's seeks their sixth HVWAC title in the last seven years.