Phoenixville, PA----Earning their third straight win, the Brooklyn College men's volleyball team pulled out a split at a non-conference trimatch at the University of Valley Forge on Saturday, defeating St. Elizabeth University, 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-19), before falling to the host, 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 26-24), in the final match of the day. Brooklyn moves to 10-13 overall with the split. Next Up: BC hosts cross-town rival, Medgar Evers, in conference play on Senior Night at 6pm.
Clinging to a 22-21 lead in the opening set against St. Elizabeth, the Bulldogs took 1-0 lead in the match on three-score rally beginning with an
Aaron Siu kill and ending with an
Armand Kaloshi kill. Already leading 20-15 in the second set, Brooklyn put the game out of reach for the Eagles with a four-point rally beginning with back-to-back kills put away by Kaloshi and
Tommy Min respectively. In a closely contested third set, the Bulldogs completed the sweep thanks to three straight SEU miscues.
Brooklyn was the more efficient team against the Eagles, finishing with a .176 hitting percentage to SEU's .098. The Bulldogs were also better defensively finishing with 34 digs to the Eagles' 30.
Siu and Kaloshi led the way against St. Elizabeth finishing with 6 kills each. Siu also finished with a team-high 8 digs.
Yinuo Zhang,
Jiaian Flanders, and
David Lema all served up a pair of aces each.
Trailing 15-11 in the first set against Valley Forge, the Bulldogs put together a five-score rally sparked by a Siu kill to take a 16-15 lead. However, the home team responded later on in the set with four straight scores for a 21-17 advantage and a cushion to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Brooklyn bounced back in the second set against the Patriots and thanks in part to a late five-score rally that included four Siu kills, the Bulldogs would even the match, 1-1. Despite leading 10-6 in the third set, the Bulldogs weren't able to hold off a 6-0 run by the Patriots to retake the lead. With the score tied 19-19, the Patriots took the lead for good beginning with a four-score rally. Brooklyn would find themselves on the cusp of forcing a deciding set, leading 24-22 in the fourth before Valley closed out the match on a three-score rally.
Even with the Patriots in number of statistical categories, the Bulldogs finished with a 50-48 advantage in digs.
Siu and Min put away 13 kills. Siu just missed a double-double finishing with 9 digs. Kaloshi hd a solid all-around match, finishing with 7 kills, 3 blocks, and 10 digs.
Ali Zandani came up with a match-high 11 digs.
