BOX SCORE

NEW YORK, NY – In a rematch of last year's CUNY Athletic Conference men's volleyball finals, Hunter College matched visiting #14 Baruch College swing for swing and closed every window the Bearcats attempted to open tonight as the Hawks came away with the 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-20) victory to remain unbeaten in the CUNYAC.

The win--in front of 211 at the Sportsplex, improves Hunter's record to 6-7 overall and 4-0 in the CUNYAC while Baruch drops to 7-6 and 3-1 in league action.

Christopher Newcomb notched a team-high 12 kills while John Gemegah added eight on .538 attacking and Braien Otsla tallied eight kills on .368 attacking. The Hawks frontline game up big in tonight's win, as Hunter managed eight team blocks and 16 block assists—with five of those belonging to Gemegah.

Hunter set the tone from the opening on a 17-7 run punctuated by four Newcomb Kills and a pair of service aces from Jonathan Park. Baruch would notch three points of its own, making it a 19-10 set and forcing a Hunter timeout before closing the gap further to 23-17. After another point in Baruch's favor, Stanley Martinez recorded a kill for match-point but a Baruch kill made it 24-19. Newcomb then swung for the winning kill to give Hunter the 25-19 victory.

The second set was fought tooth and nail from start to finish with neither team was able to gain a substantial lead. After battling to an 8-all tie, Baruch edged ahead to take a 12-9 lead. Hunter never let the Bearcats too far out of sight and initiated a comeback after trailing 14-10, when a kill from Gemegah coupled with a pair of Baruch attack errors and a bad set, knotted things up at 14-all. Baruch edged ahead once more, this time moving in front by a point (17-18) then widening the lead to 21-19 on back to back kills. Hunter refused to go down quietly and tied the set at 21-all thanks to another Baruch attack error. Despite enabling Baruch to tie the set once more at 22-22, Hunter would not let the Bearcats score another point and went on a three-point run to prevail, 25-22.

In the third and final set, Hunter maintained a three point lead for majority of the stanza. The Hawks leapt out to a 8-6 lead, forcing an early Baruch timeout and then continued to build upon it, moving to 12-10 on a service ace from Newcomb. The Bearcats hung close but an attack error gave the Hawks its largest lead in the frame, 23-18. Following a Baruch service error and kill, Jerin Kallickal notched the winning kill for Hunter, giving the Hawks the 25-20 win.  
The Hawks outmatched Baruch at every turn tonight, with 43 kills to 37 while Hunter limited the Bearcats to just .198 attacking. Hunter managed 16 block assists compared to just eight from Baruch.

Hunter returns to action this Saturday, March 3 as it heads to CCNY to compete in a multi-match with a 9am contest against John Jay before an 11am match-up against Brooklyn.