Women’s Volleyball Outlasts Old Westbury in Five-Set Home Win

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Junior Autumn Poppett (San Diego, Calif./Mission Hills) had a match-high 14 kills and sophomore Martina Urgo (Astoria, N.Y./St. John's Prep) turned in a 12-kill, 18-dig double-double as the St. Joseph's University, N.Y. (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team defeated SUNY College at Old Westbury, 3-2 (20-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-15, 15-11) in Skyline Conference action from The Hill Center on Tuesday evening.

How it Happened

St. Joseph's (3-7, 2-1) trailed by as many as 10 in the first before shrinking their deficit to four in an opening set loss. 

The Bears raced out to a 5-0 lead to open the second but couldn't pull clear of the Panthers who took a 13-11. But the navy and gray responded with six straight behind two aces from Kaitlyn Intindola (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) and two kills from Ayomide Adeoye (Brooklyn, N.Y./Edward R. Murrow) to take the lead for good and level the match.

Old Westbury (2-5, 1-2) went ahead again pulling away late with a 5-0 run at the 17-all mark and closing out the frame winning eight of the last nine points.

St. Joseph's swung the momentum back in their favor in the fourth with a 9-0 spurt powered by four aces from Carol Melo (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) to turn an 8-9 deficit to a 17-9 lead and never trailed for the rest of the match.

In the deciding fifth set, the Bears opened a 5-1 advantage with kills from Urgo, Jillian McGinty (Glendale, N.Y./Queens Metropolitan) and Poppett. The Panthers pulled within two on three separate occasions in the frame and as late as 12-10, but a kill from Poppett brought the Bears four match points and she closed out the match with her fourth kill of the set.

For the Bears

• Poppett reached double-figure kills for the first time in her career and also had a career-best eight digs.
• Urgo matched her season-highs of 12 kills and 18 digs for her third double-double of the season.
• Intindola handed out 23 assists with 18 digs for a double-double and Rachel Meltsin (Brooklyn, N.Y./James Madison) had 14 assists with six digs.
• Freshman McGinty posted career-highs of seven kills and eight digs.
• Melo had a match-best 30 digs with five aces.
• Adeoye put down five kills with four blocks.

Next Up

St. Joseph's returns to The Hill Center floor on Monday, October 3 to host Maritime College in a 7 p.m. Skyline tilt. Live stats and video will be available at SJBKathletics.com/live.