March 26, 2024
Baruch nailed Hunter in straight sets tonight to secure the top seed in the CUNYAC. Baruch left no doubt with a solid and impressive performance against their cross-town rival. In an offense normally dominated by Jack Centeno and Peter Gavroff, Argjend Osmanaj stepped up to the lead the Bearcat attack with 10 kills while hitting .368. Centeno slammed 8 kills and 3 aces while Gavroff had 7 kills and an ace. Naoki Tani starred on defense lifting a team leading 11 digs. We expect these two teams to meet one more time this year with a ticket to the NCAA Championship tourney on the line. Baruch has now won 10 in a row.
The undefeated and #3 Wentworth Leopards fell in a typical and tough late season conference match with Lasell in 5 sets. Wentworth got their normal production from their top three attackers with Jacob LaBouliere posting 22 kills and Benjamin Moughon and Jacob Waga tallying 16 each. Wentworth outscored the Lasers 110-105 for the match, but Lasell won three of the 5 sets, the last set at 15-12. The Leopards were very aggressive at the service line and ended up committing 23 service errors compared to 8 aces while Lasell had 6 aces but just 14 service errors. Lasell was anchored by 15 kills from Theo Zaharewicz, 12 kills from Brendan Joyce, and 11 from Jan Baranowski who hit .476 on the night with just one attack error. Jesus Garcia was outstanding for the Lasers posting 39 assists, a team leading 12 digs, and an ace. Lasell has had one of those seasons where they seemed to fall just short of major accomplishments. But not tonight. They took Juniata to 6 sets earlier this season and also battled to a 5-set loss to St. John Fisher. They beat MIT and struggled with some player injuries. They beat Vassar this season as well and tonight they avenge a 4-set loss to Wentworth six weeks ago. Lasell is now 12-11 overall and 7-2 in conference while Wentworth falls back to 24-1 and 10-1 in conference play. They are a team to watch as playoffs heat up shortly.
Marymount started the season with 14 straight wins including wins over MIT and CUW. A tri-match at Misericordia and a trip to California to compete in the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational left the Saints with 5 losses in 6 games, but had highlights of beating Rivier, and taking both Stevens and UC Santa Cruz to 5 sets. They now are on a roll again, winning 4 in a row, taking the learnings from their sobering experience against some of the country’s best teams, and turning into 3 straight CVC wins and an undefeated 5-0 conference record. They control their own destiny in the conference and still have Juniata (this Friday, away) and Southern Virginia (4/3, home). Tonight, they took down Stevenson 3-0. Luke Morris popped in 12 kills and Diego Pena slammed 7 while adding 22 assists. Pena also led the team with 8 digs. Luke Pogue had 4 blocks for the Saints. Marymount plays exceptional defense and it’s just so hard to get anything down on them. Stevenson has an exceptional attack which Marymount limited to a .197 hit percentage. The Saints hit .400 overall for the match.
In a super tight three sets, Misericordia wore down Messiah 3-0 and gained an edge in the seedings for the MAC conference tournament coming up fast. The Cougars are now 19-8 overall and 5-1 in the MAC with games remaining against Stevenson and Eastern. Messiah is now 14-9 overall and 5-2 in the MAC with one game remaining against Arcadia. Right-side Jared Piontowski had 17 kills and 3 blocks tonight to lead the big conference win.
Illinois Tech looked outstanding tonight as they swept Concordia Chicago. Riley Laite had 11 kills, 10 digs, and hit .391 while Grant Couper had 9 kills, 2 blocks, and 9 digs. Alec Donald led all Cardinals with 12 digs and Eli Sherman had 30 assists and 4 kills.
Tyler Younger had 18 kills, 3 aces, and 15 digs to lead Valley Forge over Wilson, 3-2. Clay Confer had 24 digs and Paul Brown had 51 assists. It was Valley Forge’s first conference win of the season.
John Jay continued their solid season with a conference win over CCNY, improving to 15-6 overall and 8-4 in conference play. The Bloodhounds are poised to host a quarter-final match in conference playoffs with 2 matches left in their conference schedule. Logan Ramos had 11 kills and 8 digs while Alex Bridgelall had 34 assists, 3 aces, 5 digs, 2 blocks, and 6 kills.
David Pineda was a difference maker tonight for MSOE as he tallied 11 kills and hit .304 over 2 sets in a 3-1 Raiders victory over St. Norbert. Matt Chavez and Parker Rings combined for 41 assists for the winners.
Saint Vincent’s pounded Mount Aloysius 3-0 to clinch top seed in the AMCC. Shawn McSwiggen was near perfect tonight, jamming 13 kills with just one attack error while posting 2 blocks and 5 digs. Zeb Wyant (9 kills, .471) and Matt Minkin (10 kills, .421) were solid on the attack.
