Lady Bears Volleyball Outlasts York in Five-Set Battle

JAMAICA, N.Y.  – Powered by a match-high 17 kills from Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, NY/Fontbonne Hall) and a double-double effort from Kim Matthews (Breezy Point, NY/Bishop Kearney), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team captured a 3-2 (25-20, 20-25, 25-7, 22-25, 15-7) road win over York College on Tuesday night.

St. Joseph's (13-5, 5-0 HVWAC) improves to 3-2 in five-set affairs this season and wins their second straight. York (7-27, 3-5 CUNYAC) wraps up their regular season dropping their third straight and both ends of their home doubleheader, losing in four sets to Staten Island earlier in the night.

GaNun committed only two attack errors to hit an efficient .357. The freshman middle hitter also stuffed a match-high four blocks and added a pair of aces. Matthews matched a season-high 13 kills, brought up 13 digs and landed four service aces to record her seventh double-double of the season.

Sophomore Nicole Rios (Astoria, NY/Mary Louis) posted a match-best 17 digs with freshman Anna Carbone (Ozone Park, NY/Mary Louis) adding 11 digs to lead the defensive effort. Junior Sabrina Cornia (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place) directed the offense with 35 assists, her sixth game with 30-plus assists.

York was paced by Sharon Fordyce who put down a team-high 10 kills and served a match-high five aces. Allison Li anchored the Cardinal defense with 14 digs and Pamela Yap handed out 18 assists.

The teams went back-and-forth trading sets with St. Joseph's taking sets one, three and five and York prevailing in the even numbered sets.

The Lady Bears trailed 15-13 in set one, but took control with an 11-2 run with Matthews and GaNun combining for seven kills to spark the turnaround that led to a 25-20 opening-set victory.

York won set two by the same margin, closing out the set capturing six of the final seven points to break a 19-19 deadlock.

The Lady Bears then ran away with a 25-7 third-set win, hitting .562 in the frame (10 kills, 1 error) building a 17-2 advantage and never turning back.

York led by as many as five points in the fourth set, 15-10, but St. Joseph's took the lead with a 9-2 run and threatened to finish off the hosts in four sets leading 22-20, but the Cardinals won the final five points to force a deciding set.

But it would be all St. Joseph's in the fifth set, the Lady Bears racing out to a 9-1 lead and holding off a late surge from the Cardinals who cut the deficit to four.

St. Joseph's wraps up their Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference schedule on Thursday, October 25th, squaring off against Sarah Lawrence College (15-12, 4-0 HVWAC) with the regular season title and first-round bye for the upcoming HVWAC Tournament on the line. The Lady Bears will seek their first regular season title since 2008 against the Gryphons who have won five of the last six. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. at the Campbell Sports Center.