Women’s Volleyball Escapes with Five-Set Win Over Lehman in Home Finale

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Freshman Cristina Morales (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) notched a career-high 21 kills and classmate Makayla Beehler (Rockaway Beach, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) served up a career-best 43 assists to lead the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team (10-10) past Lehman College (5-18) in five sets on Thursday night at The Hill Center.

The victory was the Bears' third in a row and they are now winners of five of their last six matches bringing them to .500 on the season.

How It Happened
Samantha Delgado fired a service ace to give Lehman an early 6-2 advantage in the first set, but it was all SJC for the rest of the frame. Following Delgado's ace, the Bears reeled off 11 unanswered points as part of a 13-1 run behind four Morales kills to take control 15-7. The Lighting wouldn't lead for the rest of the frame and Beehler passed to Kayla Ostermann (Glendale, N.Y./Queens Metropolitan) who hit the final kill of the set to win 25-15.

Lehman put up five-straight scores to take a 9-7 lead in the second but the Bears answered with a 10-3 spurt for a 17-12 advantage that they wouldn't relinquish. The visitors came back to within three (18-15), but SJC held on scoring the final three points of the set ending it at 25-18.

The Lightning controlled the third set as they bounced back from being down 7-5 early with a 15-0 stretch that included seven Caitlin Vernon aces for a 20-7 lead. The deficit proved to be too much for the Bears as Delgado slammed a kill for the final point and a 25-13 set victory.

A St. Joseph's error had Lehman leading 5-1 to start the fourth but the Bears tied it at eight with a kill from Valentina Urgo (Astoria, N.Y./St. John's Prep). However, a 12-4 rally from Lehman put control of the stanza back in their hands (23-20) and they would go on to win 27-25 in a tiebreaker with a kill from Vernon being the deciding point to knot the match at two sets apiece.

Three Morales kills led to an immediate 10-2 lead for SJC to open the deciding fifth set, but the Lightning responded with a 6-1 spurt featuring a handful of St. Joseph's errors. The Bears finished strong though, scoring the final four points of the match and winning 15-8 on back-to-back Beehler aces.

For the Bears

• Morales had her third-straight game with 10+ kills (21) on .326 hitting and brought up 17 digs to secure a double-double.
• Beehler complimented her 43 dimes with eight digs, six kills, and three aces. Her 43 assists also matched the Bears' five-set record.
• Marrazzo put up a double-double of her own with 17 digs and 11 kills (five aces) while hitting an impressive .611.
• Urgo notched a season-high 20 digs along with eight kills and Ostermann had a career-best nine kills with 12 digs of her own.

Next Up for the Bears
SJC wraps up their 2018 regular season and Skyline schedule with a tri-match at Farmingdale State also featuring Yeshiva University on Sunday (Oct. 28) beginning at 10 a.m. Links to live stats and video will be available at SJCBears.com.