Lady Bears Drop Five-Set Heartbreaker to Lehman in Home Finale

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Despite having three match points, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's volleyball team couldn't hold off Lehman College, falling in five sets in a see-saw battle at Brooklyn Technical High School in the Lady Bears' final home game of the season.

The loss drops the Lady Bears to 11-4, snapping a four-game winning streak and a perfect 3-0 record against CUNY opposition. St. Joseph's concludes their home slate with a 5-2 record with three matches going the distance. Lehman levels their record to 11-11, capturing the last four meetings.

Freshman Lauren GaNun (Breezy Point, NY/Fontbonne Hall) led a balanced St. Joseph's attack collecting a team-high 15.5 points, putting down eight kills, landing three aces and stuffing a match- and career-high six blocks.  Senior Kim Matthews (Breezy Point, NY/Bishop Kearney) shared team-high honors with eight kills to go along with 13 digs.

Sophomore Jennifer Moncino (Ridgewood, NY/Archbishop Molloy) contributed four kills with a team-high five aces and two blocks tallying 10.0 points while junior Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic's) chipped in five kills and five blocks.

Junior Sabrina Cornia (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place HS) recorded a double-double handing out 24 assists with 14 digs.

For Lehman, Cari English led all attackers with a match-high 19 kills and three blocks.  Besa Zabelaj had 11 kills and landed a match-high seven aces. Jo-Marie Aquino (10 kills, 16 digs) and Imani Dubois (35 assists, 13 digs) each contributed double-double efforts for the visitors.

The Lightning captured the opening set 25-21, after both teams were deadlocked at the 19-19 mark.  St. Joseph's stormed back to level the match with a 25-15 set victory in set two. But Lehman would never trail in the third stanza responding with a 25-14 set victory, to jump out to a 2-1 lead.

Despite hitting a match-worst -.036 (6 kills, 7 errors) in set four, the Lady Bears landed six aces to and held on for a 25-20 victory in a highly-contested fourth set that featured nine ties and two lead changes.

St. Joseph's carried the momentum into the deciding set, racing out to a 13-7 lead, two points from victory. But Lehman cut the deficit to 13-12 on three kills from Aquino and two Lady Bears miscues. A Nicole Rios (Astoria, NY/Mary Louis) kill gave St. Joseph's two match points, 14-12, but a Lehman sideout erased one match point and a timely ace after the Lady Bears played a serve that appeared to be long knotted the game at 14-14.

The Lightning and Lady Bears then traded match points, which were wiped out by service errors after being iced by opportune time outs.  Lehman then closed out the match on a pair of Zabelaj service aces, her match-high seventh for the Lightning who finished with 18 for the contest.

St. Joseph's will look to rebound on Thursday October 18th against another CUNY foe CCNY, beginning a stretch of five road games to close out the regular season. First serve is slated for 7 pm at the Nat Holman Gymnasium.