Men's Volleyball Splits HVIAC Tri-Match at Sarah Lawrence

BRONXVILLE, N.Y. -  Junior Raul Urshela (Orlando, Fla./Colonial) slammed down 36 kills as the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team split a Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) tri-match at Sarah Lawrence College on Sunday afternoon, defeating Sarah Lawrence in a thrilling five-set match, 3-2 (25-16, 25-22, 15-25, 17-25, 15-10) before falling to Yeshiva University, 3-1 (25-23, 7-25, 14-25, 15-25) in their second match of the day.

St. Joseph's (3-5, 1-1 HVIAC) starts 1-1 in league play for the first time in school history, while Sarah Lawrence (0-18, 0-2) remains winless on the year. Yeshiva (2-9, 2-0), the four-time defending regular season champions, snaps a four-game losing streak with their win over the Bears.

In their opening match of the day, the Bears were led by Urshela who notched a double-double finishing with a team-high 22 kills and 15 digs. Also recording a double-double was senior setter Iqbal Husain (West Palm Beach, Fla./Palm Beach Gardens) who concluded the match against the Gryphons with 26 assists and 14 digs.

Sarah Lawrence was led by one-time HVIAC Player of the Week Ishaan Pujari who recorded a double-double slamming down a match-high 25 kills and brought up a match-high 25 digs.

The opening set saw the Bears jump out to an early 7-3 lead and they did not look back as they built the lead to as many as 11, 24-13 before finishing the set off with an Urshela kill.

The second set began just as the first one started as St. Joseph's  jumped out to a 10-7 lead before the Gryphons rattled off five straight points to take a 12-10 lead. However, the Bears responded with a 7-1 run to take the lead for good at 17-13 and were helped by seven kills from Urshela to take what looked like a commanding 2-0 lead.

Sarah Lawrence responded by taking the third set without trailing, finishing the set on an 8-2 spurt after St. Joseph's had gotten within 17-13 to make the score 2-1 and give themselves momentum heading into the fourth set.

The fourth set was tightly contested with neither team building a large lead until the Gryphons scored four answered after the Bears got within one to make it 16-12. Sarah Lawrence would cruise the rest of the way setting up a pivotal fifth set showdown.

The beginning of the final set saw the Gryphons holding all the momentum but St. Joseph's dug in deep and jumped out to a 9-1 lead and would end any hopes of a Sarah Lawrence comeback .

In the second match, Yeshiva dropped the first set to the Bears before stepping up their game and not trailing at any point during the next three sets  as they finished with a .212 hitting percentage.

Urshela finished with a match-high 14 kills, while sophomore Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) put down five kills and had a match-high 20 digs.

The Maccabees were led by reigning HVIAC Player of the Week Menachem Goldstein who had a team-high 13 kills. Jared Rechnitz picked up a double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Against Sarah Lawrence, the Bears hit .112 for the match finishing with 39 kills, while the Gryphons concluded the match with a .186 hitting percentage and 48 kils.
• In the second match against Yeshiva, St. Joseph's hit .040 with 28 kills and had 12 service errors.

THE BEAR FACTS

• Urshela surpassed current assistant coach Martin Torres for most kills (447) in school history against Yeshiva and now has 452 for his career.

NEXT UP FOR THE BEARS – Purchase

St. Joseph's will travel to Skyline Conference member Purchase College on Thursday, March 13th for a 7 p.m. first serve.