New York, N.Y. - Hunter College men's volleyball took down Baruch College in four sets on Tuesday evening, taking the first two (25-18, 25-19), dropping the third (23-25) and winning an exciting fourth (26-24) for the victory.
The Hawks improved to 15-9 overall and 6-0 in the CUNYAC for a solid first-place standing in the conference. The Bearcats dropped to 14-10 and got just their second league loss of the year for a mark of 5-1.
With the score tied 6-6 in the first, Hunter found themselves on a streak, scoring eight-straight points with kills from
Blake Hogan,
Sherrod Cole,
Qendrim Shala and
Christian Maisonet for a 14-6 lead. From there the Purple and Gold opened up the advantage to eight points and then finished off the Bearcats with kills from Shala and Maisonet to take it, 25-18.
The Hawks trailed by one point in the second set before taking advantage of four Baruch errors to pull ahead. Hunter outscored the Bearcats 9-4 to make the score 21-14 and then managed the last four points for a 25-19 win.
Despite earning the first point off a kill from
Cyrus De Guzman, Hunter trailed for most of the third until recording three-straight kills from De Guzman, Hogan and Maisonet for a one-point lead. The Hawks stayed in control, taking a 20-19 edge, but quickly fell behind as Baruch went on a 5-1 run. The Bearcats finished it off due to Hunter errors, getting a 25-23 win to send it into the fourth.
Baruch jumped out to a 15-10 advantage in the fourth set, not allowing the Hawks to catch up until they finally found themselves down by just point (22-21). A kill from Baruch made the score 23-21, but the Hawks did not go away, scoring three-straight to get ahead, 24-23. Baruch tied the score for the last time before the Hawks got a kill from De Guzman and a block from Hogan and Cole to secure the 3-1 match win.
The Purple and Gold had four players with double-digit kills, led by Maisonet's 15. Hogan, De Guzman and Shala each tallied 12 kills, while De Guzman led the offense with a .458 hitting percentage.
Chris Scandole paced the Hunter defense with 16 digs and
Alec Helford registered 51 assists in the win. De Guzman added a team-high five blocks in the match.
The team returns to action on Saturday, March 30 whn they travel to Springfield College for a tri-match.
