Box Score
New York, NY - On Tuesday night, March 1, the men's volleyball team played host to city rivals, the Bearcats of Baruch College. The Hawks jumped out to a hard fought two set lead, but the Bearcat squad hung tough to come back and take the ensuing two sets to force a fifth and final set. Despite the home crowd behind them, the Hawks found themselves on the short end of the scoreboard as their counterparts stole the final set by two points (23-25, 28-26, 23-25, 21-25, 14-16). With the loss, Hunter drops to 12-11, 8-2 CUNYAC while Baruch advances to 21-10, 10-0 in CUNYAC play.
A combine nine kills between the duo of sophomore Braien Otsla and junior Eric Barty contributed to an impressive team hitting percentage of .450 in the opening set, setting the Bearcats back 25-23. The second set proved to be just as close as Baruch held a slight two point advantage in the late stages of set, a service error and a huge block by sophomore John Gemegah put the Hawks in position to go ahead 25-26. The one point advantage was just enough breathing room as they held off the Bearcats 28-26, threatening a short three set match.
Despite being up two sets to none, head coach Ray Bello and his squad had to continue to play hard as Baruch would not go down without a fight. Despite 15 team kills, eleven coming off the hands of senior Marcin Polac, Barty and Otsla, they fell behind by two points and would not recover, allowing the Bearcats to begin their rally.
Behind eight kills by Pablo Oliveira, Baruch charged ahead in the fourth set taking a slight lead and holding off the Hawks despite 14 team kills, taking the set 25-21 and forcing a final set. In the fifth set, the young Hawk team again fell behind and didn't have enough down the stretch to hold off an experienced Bearcat squad, eventually dropping the match by two points, 18-16.
Barty led the Hawks with 24 kills while Otsla chipped in with 20 and Polac with 10. Freshman setter, Stanley Martinez had a game and season high 59 assists while Gemegah tallied nine kills and a game high five solo blocks. Oliveira had a game high 26 kills while setter Jesus Echevarria posted 49 assists.
The Hawks return to action on Saturday, March 5 when they travel to CCNY to compete in the third and final CUNYAC Multi-Match where they will take on host CCNY at 9:00 am and Brooklyn at 11:00 am.
