New York- The Hunter College women's volleyball team upset the no. 2 seed in the CUNYAC tournament on Wednesday night to advance to the conference championship match.
The no. 3 seeded Hawks (13-12) took down their cross-town rival at the ARC Arena in a 3-1 match. Hunter trailed early in the first set as the team took the first two points before Baruch (11-17) went on a three- and then a five-point run to lead 8-3. A pair of kills by seniors,
Justine Smith and
Mariam Ouattara, set the tone for the comeback as a back-and-forth battle ensued. First round standout
Brittany Wang produced a couplet of kills that would give Hunter back the lead for the first time since the match's start at 17-16. The two teams would continue to exchange points for the remainder of the set until the Purple and Gold took the victory at 25-21.
The second set saw another point-for-point exchange until Hunter separated itself scoring five unanswered highlighted by a pair of kills from Ouattara and a block in tandem with Smith. Baruch fought back, going on two separated three-point runs but could not keep up with the Hawks as the Purple and Gold sailed to another 25-21 win.
Baruch came back in the third set. After Hunter dropped the first point, the Bearcats went on a six point run, their longest of the match thus far. The Hawks notched two more points before Baruch logged another four consecutive tallies. Another back-and-forth run began but the Hawks were unable to regain lost ground from earlier in the set, despite four kills from
Alexa Sayson, and dropped the third 25-20 to the Bearcats.
In true Hawks fashion, the lost set did nothing to hinder Hunter. The team bounced back, picking up a trio of three point runs, and two four- and five-point runs in the final set to send itself to the CUNYAC Championship match with a 25-17 win.
Ouattara led the team for the night with 17 kills and four blocks, while Sayson collected 20 digs and 10 kills.
Erin Hyman produced 17 kills for the night as Smith logged ten in addition to her 40 assists.
Hunter will take on top-seeded Brooklyn College at its home court on Friday (Nov. 5). First serve is slated for 6 p.m.
