Men's Volleyball Serves Straight Set Defeat to Sarah Lawrence; Martinez Sets New Single-Game Aces Record

BROOKLYN, N.Y.— Powered by a program-record 13 aces from Norrin Martinez (Maspeth, N.Y./Holy Cross), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) men's volleyball team landed 20 aces and cruised to a straight-set victory over Sarah Lawrence College, 3-0 (25-15, 25-9, 25-12) on Wednesday evening at The Hill Center.

The second straight victory moves the Bears (3-2) back above .500 and is the third straight over the former Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rivals after dropping five straight to open the all-time series.

Martinez' 13 aces broke the previous record of nine aces, set by Muhammad Ali Bhatti in 2012. Entering the game, St. Joseph's led Division III in aces per set with 2.93, with three Bears ranked in the top 10 individually—Raul Urshela at No. 1 (0.73), Thomas Kennedy at No. 7 (0.67) and Martinez at No. 9 (0.60). Martinez also dished out 17 assists to guide the offense that totaled 23 kills and hit .268 for the match.

Kennedy led all attackers with a near double-double with nine kills and a team-high nine digs. Taso Kostikas (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) contributed eight kills against just one error and brought up seven digs. Jessup Sanna (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Loughlin) chipped in career-high three kills.

Alex Carroll led the Gryphons (0-1) with three kills while Isaac Gamboa posted a match-high 12 digs to anchor the defense.

The visitors jumped out to a seven-point led on two occasions in the opening set. Prompting the Bears to call an early timeout. Trailing 14-8, Martinez took control of the set at the service line, serving five straight aces to cut the deficit to one and forcing a Sarah Lawrence time out, but it wouldn't hinder Martinez as he powered a 14-0 run, landing 10 aces in the process, and the Bears never trailed again in the match.

The Bears took control of the second and third sets jumping out to 12-3 and 13-3 advantages never letting the Gryphons back into the set holding them to just nine kills for the match.

St. Joseph's has a quick turnaround returning to The Hill Center tomorrow to host Cooper Union at 7 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on SJCBears.com.