Patchogue, NY | The College of Staten Island women's volleyball team saw their season-long losing streak hit four matches today as they suffered a pair of defeats as part of the St. Joseph's College Invitational Tournament. First, CSI suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the hosts Eagles, and then they fell in an afternoon match to Salve Regina University by the same, 3-0, count.
GAME ONE - ST. JOSEPH'S (LI) 3, STATEN ISLAND 0
St. Joseph's took a close, 3-0, match by scores of 25-21, 25-21, and 25-22 to open things up this morning in a match that could have went either way. CSI took an early, 6-2, edge in the opening set, highlighted by an
Alexandria Boachie-Ansah ace, but the Eagles retalliated with an 8-0 run from there which featured two Kaitlin Williams' kills. Later, a 5-0 run, pulled the Eagles away as they extended to an 18-9 advantage thanks to a Brionna Silva ace and another Williams kill. A 7-2 run by CSI later in the set got CSI to within 23-20, but kills by Danielle Silkin and Gillian Donaghy were able to put SJC-LI in the win column.
Once again, CSI started red-hot in the second set, this time getting out to a 7-1 edge to start play, spearheaded by two kills by
Jay-La Guy and another by
Caitlin Esposito. The Eagles then rattled off six straight points to tie, and from there, the set featured four lead changes. A critical 5-0 SJC run, highlighted by two Jessica Young kills broke open another tie to make it 18-13 in the Eagles' favor. CSI was able to draw close again at 23-21, but yet again, SJC was able to score the final two points to end the frame.
In the third and deciding set, CSI had a more modest, 3-1, lead to start, but kills at the front put SJC in control early as they took an early, 10-6, edge, helped along by a Kristen Bodenblusch ace. CSI came back, and took a 12-11 lead later thanks to an
Arianna Spears kill, but a 6-1 run later by SJC gave them back an 18-13 edge and again CSI clawed back but were too far behind as the Eagles were able to prevail, 25-22.
Young led SJC's balanced attack with 10 kills while Silva added a team-best 30 assists, three blocks and two aces. Danielle Senecal led the way with 13 digs for the victors. Guy turned in a team-best eight kills for CSI to go with six blocked shots, while Boachie-Ansah led defensively with 14 digs. Spears posted 21 assists.
GAME TWO - SALVE REGINA 3, STATEN ISLAND 0
CSI had a tougher go of it in the second match this afternoon, falling by scores of 25-13, 25-14, and 25-12. CSI scored the opening point in the first set but four straight Salve Regina points gave them a lead they would never relinquish. The Seahwks opened a 10-2 lead on a Madison Lee ace, and later extended to 19-10 on two more Meredith Arancio aces. Lee added another ace and two kills later to ice the set at 25-13.
In the second set, things went back-and-forth to start and CSI was down one, 5-4, early before a 9-1 Seahawks run opened things up. Annie Donahue added back-to-back kills to spark the run. A kill by Lee later made it 18-6 and SRU was well on their way to a second set win.
Firmly in command, the Seahawks again broke away from CSI in the third set using a big run. This time a 6-1 spurt broke a 5-5 early tie to get the Seahawks on their way to a big win in the third set. Lee would add two more kills and three-straight aces to end the set and the match, closing out her big day.
For SRU they were led by Donahue's 14 kills, while Lee added a team-high five aces. Arancio tallied 35 assists while Victoria Schwenderman posted 13 digs to lead the way defensively. SRU posted 15 aces in total to CSI's four.
