Women's Volleyball Keeps HVIAC Tournament Hopes Alive Outlasting Culinary in Five Sets

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--With their Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament lives on the line, junior Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, N.Y./Fontbonne Hall) slammed a whopping 40 kills to lead the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team to a five-set victory over the Culinary Institute of America on Saturday evening at Brooklyn Technical High School as the team celebrated the first of their two Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Games.

The Lady Bears (6-10, 1-3 HVIAC) now need a win over Yeshiva on Monday to claim the fourth-and-final tournament spot, eliminating Culinary (6-7, 1-4 HVIAC) from contention, with a loss bringing a three-way tie among the teams to be settled by tiebreaker rules.

GaNun committed just four attack errors on 99 attempts for a .364 hitting percentage and stuffed three blocks. Anna Carbone (Ozone Park, N.Y./Mary Louis) contributed a 32-assist, 33-dig double-double and Jennifer Moncino (Ridgewood, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) led four Lady Bears that combined for 117 digs with a career-high 35 digs with eight kills. Samantha Cacace (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) also finished with a double-double by way of 12 assists and 12 digs.

Marcela Andonie led the visiting Steels with a 14-kill, 26-dig double-double and Emily Brown added a 12-kill, 21-dig double-double to the losing effort.

St. Joseph's never trailed in the opening set and eight kills from GaNun led to a 25-19 win. The Steels leveled the match in the second set with a 9-0 run that broke open a set that was tied at 10-all. The Lady Bears made a late run and pulled within three, 23-20, but the Steels held on to win 25-20.

The Lady Bears rallied in the third in a back-and-forth frame that saw seven ties and four lead changes. Holding on to a late 18-16 lead, St. Joseph's won five straight points with a GaNun block and kill spurting the run, and claimed the set, 25-18.

The Steels leveled the match for the second time pulling away again at the 10-all mark with a 6-1 run and the Lady Bears couldn't close the gap before falling 25-16.

In the deciding set, the second time in three meetings the two squads have gone to five sets, the Lady Bears never trailed, winning the opening two points and after switching sides at 8-5, held the Steels to just three more points closing out the match 15-8.

St. Joseph's returns to Brooklyn Technical High School on Monday, October 20th hosting Yeshiva University in the second of their Breast Cancer Awareness games, looking to clinch a spot in Sunday's HVIAC Tournament. First serve is slated for 8 p.m.