Women's Volleyball Falls to New Rochelle in HVIAC Championship

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Looking for their first conference championship since 2008, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team defeated Pratt Institute, 3-0 (25-21, 27-25, 25-22) in a tightly contested matchup in the semifinals of the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) Tournament before suffering a heartbreaking, 3-1 (25-17, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19) loss to hosts The College of New Rochelle in the championship game to conclude their season on Sunday afternoon at the CNR Wellness Center.

The semifinal matchup that pitted the No. 1 seeded Lady Bears (14-7) and No. 4 Cannoneers (8-11) was close throughout as St. Joseph's took the first set without trailing during the period and it look like they would dispatch Pratt rather easily.

However, the Cannoneers had other plans as they stormed out in front in the second set taking a 23-17 lead with the likelihood of a tied match at its highest point. The Lady Bears dug deep and rattled off six unanswered to tie up the set at 23-23. The two teams went to a tiebreaker with St. Joseph's taking the final two points after the score was tied at 25-25 to take a 2-0 lead.

The final set saw Pratt once again jump out in front and was leading 20-17 before the Lady Bears finished the set on an 8-2 run securing their spot against New Rochelle (22-11) in the championship match after the Blue Angels took care of business against Culinary (12-4) in the other semifinal winning in straight sets.

The Lady Bears were led by sophomore Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, N.Y./Fontbonne Hall) who had her tenth double-double of the year finishing with a match-high 14 kills along with 10 digs while senior Megan Moran (Syosset, N.Y./St. Dominic's) had 13 kills.

New Rochelle had proven to be difficult to beat at home this season as they finished the regular season with an 11-3 mark in their gym. The Blue Angels used this to their advantage in the semifinals using the crowd to their advantage to overwhelm the Steels and the Lady Bears would face a tall task in silencing the home fans.

The opening set saw New Rochelle jump out of the gates early taking an early 10-7 lead. St. Joseph's responded to get within one at 11-10 but the Blue Angels followed that up with a 4-0 run to put them up 15-11 and would not trail again in the period as they took the most lopsided set of the match to build a 1-0 lead.

With the crowd up against them and New Rochelle playing at a high level the Lady Bears came out in the second set and fought back from an early 6-1 deficit by going on an 8-0 run to give themselves a 9-6 lead forcing a Blue Angels timeout and putting the crowd to rest for the moment. New Rochelle would tie the set at 17-17 but St. Joseph's responded by taking a 23-21 lead and looked to square up the match.  The Blue Angels had other ideas as they finished the set scoring five unanswered to take a 2-0 lead.

The pivotal third set for the Lady Bears did not start out well as they trailed for most of the early action but St. Joseph's would go on a 7-2 run after trailing 12-10 to put them up 17-14. The Lady Bears led the rest of the way until New Rochelle tied the score up at 22-22 and 24-24 forcing a tiebreaker. St. Joseph's took both points to take the set and close the deficit to 2-1.

The final set saw the Lady Bears build a 12-11 lead but an ensuing 5-0 spurt by the Blue Angels put them up 16-12 and they would not look back as they did not trail again and clinched the championship on a kill by Tiany Perez Diaz.

GaNun paced the Lady Bears again finishing with another double-double with 17 kills and 15 digs. Moran contributed 16 kills while senior Sabrina Cornia (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller) had 34 assists and 11 digs.

St. Joseph's concludes their season winning 14 games for the third consecutive year and have now had three winning seasons in a row for the first time since the 2006-08 seasons. New Rochelle finishes off their banner year on an eight-match winning streak and earns their first conference tournament title since 2010 when they hosted and ironically defeated the Lady Bears in five sets to take home the hardware.

In awards ceremonies after the championship, GaNun, Moran and junior Jennifer Moncino (Ridgewood, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) were named to the 2013 HVIAC All-Conference team while head coach Kathleen O'Neill earned Coach of the Year honors.