Lady Bears Volleyball Rally Against Keystone Falls Short

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – For the second time in as many home games, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team found themselves down two sets, but rallied to force a deciding set for the  the home crowd at Brooklyn Technical High School, but couldn't complete another comeback, falling to Keystone College, 3-2 (25-15, 25-22, 16-25, 19-25, 15-4), on Tuesday night.

St. Joseph's drops to 7-3 overall, while Keystone improves to 2-17 and winners of two-of-their-last-three.

The non-conference matchup was also the first in a series of Cancer Awareness Games at Brooklyn Technical High School. In conjunction with their "Serving the Cure" fundraiser, the Lady Bears landed 13 service aces with fans pledging to donate money to the Livestrong Foundation. The fundraiser will run through the Brooklyn College home game on October 10th and the John Jay Game on October 12th.

Fresh off being named Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference Player of the Week earlier in the day, freshman Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, NY/Fontbonne Hall) paced the St. Joseph's offense putting down a match-high 15 kills with one block. Senior Kim Matthews (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 10 kills and 14 digs. Junior Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic's) rounded out three in double figures with 13 kills.

Junior Sabrina Cornia (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place HS) directed the offense with 39 assists and a match high four aces. Sophomore Nicole Rios (Astoria, NY/Mary Louis) and freshman Anna Carbone (Ozone Park, NY/Mary Louis) combined for 33 digs to solidify the defense.

Keystone was led by a trio of double-double sefforts from Danielle Cedeno (12 kills, 14 digs, 3 aces), Shelby Morgan (10 kills, 14 digs, 2 aces) and Carol Mosier (30 assists, 13 digs, 2 aces).

The visiting Giants seemed unfazed by the nearly three hour drive for the weeknight tilt, taking sets one and two with relative ease, taking control from the outset and never letting the Lady Bears close the gap.

The Lady Bears raced out to a 10-2 advantage in the third set and took a wire-to-wire victory to cut the deficit to 2-1.

In the fourth set, Keystone built a 15-9 lead, but St. Joseph's stormed back behind the Jennifer Moncino (Ridgewood, NY/Archbishop Molloy) and Carbone service to assemble a 10-2 run to take the lead for good. GaNun put away six of the Lady Bears' 14 kills in the frame without an attack error.

But St. Joseph's struggled to keep the momentum going in the deciding set, Morgan serving six straight points helping the Giants build a 6-1 lead which the Lady Bears would not cut into.

St. Joseph's returns to the court on Wednesday, October 10th, welcoming borough rivals Brooklyn College for the second of three Cancer Awareness games at Brooklyn Technical High School.