Lady Bears Volleyball Closes Regular Season With Five-Set Loss to St. Joseph's (Long Island)

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team jumped out to a two-set lead, but couldn't hold off their sibling counterparts, succumbing to St. Joseph's College (Long Island), 3-2 (24-26, 19-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-6) on Saturday afternoon at the Danzi Athletic Center.

The Lady Bears (14-6, 6-0 HVWAC) find their three-game winning steak snapped to conclude the regular season, but will head into next weekend's Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference Tournament as the top seed. The Golden Eagles (18-6, 6-3 Skyline) wins five of their last six and enters the Skyline Tournament as the No. 3 seed.

Senior Kim Matthews (Breezy Point, NY/Bishop Kearney) recorded her eighth double-double of the season with a match-high 20.5 points by way of a team-high 15 kills, 13 digs, five service aces and one block. Freshman Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, NY/Fontbonne Hall) put down 13 kills and had a trio of blocks and fellow middle hitter Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic's) added nine kills with a block.

Junior Sabrina Cornia (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place HS) matched a season-best, reached already twice this year, dishing out 39 assists.  Freshman libero Anna Carbone (Ozone Park, NY/Mary Louis) led three Lady Bears with double digit digs with 17 in total.

For Long Island, four Golden Eagles finished with double-digit kills led by Heather Ferchland who put down a match-high 16 kills. Tiffany Willms (14 kills, 11 digs) and Melissa Garbaldi (10 kills, 12 digs) contributed double-double efforts to the victory. Julianne Tierney distributed 56 assists to the Golden Eagles who combined for 62 kills in the contest, 16 better than the Lady Bears.

The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 17-9 lead in the opening set, but the Lady Bears produced a 11-3 run powered by three GaNun kills to level the set at 20-20 before stealing it from the Golden Eagles 26-24.

The Lady Bears overcame a 16-12 deficit in set two, winning the final six points in the frame to jump out to a two-set advantage.

The Golden Eagles hit an efficient .481 in set number three to prevent a sweep, assembling a 6-1 run at the 12-12 mark to take the lead for good.

The pivotal fourth set saw 11 ties and four lead changes and Long Island combining for 16 kills to hold off a late surge from the Lady Bears who clipped the Golden Eagle lead to 22-20.

In the fifth and deciding set, the Golden Eagles produced seven kills against no errors, building a 8-4 advantage at the side change and winning the final five points in a row to complete the comeback.

The Lady Bears will have a week off to rest up for the HVWAC Championships next weekend.  Earning a first round bye as the No. 1 seed, the Lady Bears will face the winner of No. 4 Culinary vs. No. 5 Pratt in the semifinal round. Both semifinals and championship will take place on Sunday, November 4th at the Culinary Institute of America, with semifinal play starting at 2 p.m.