NJCU Comes Back from 2-0 Down, Advances to Championship Match
New Jersey City University erased a two-sets-to-none deficit to defeat Hunter College, 3-2, in the second ECAC Men’s Volleyball Tournament Semifinal Saturday afternoon. The Gothic Knights won the final three sets 25-22, 25-23, and 15-12, after dropping the first two 24-26 and 21-25, to move on to this evening’s championship match versus Rutgers-Newark.
It was a closely contested contest throughout, but NJCU executed down the stretch, outhitting Hunter in the final three sets, 0.150 to 0.080, and totaling 38 kills versus Hunter’s 21. Overall, NJCU had 61 kills in the match while Hunter had 47 despite a slight edge to Hunter in hitting percentage, 0.125 to 0.120.
NJCU’s Matt Peralta led the way with 19 kills on the afternoon, with teammate Marcus Pardasie coming in behind him with 17 kills. Each team had three double-digit kill performers with Victor De Souza’s 11 kills joining Peralta and Pardasie and Hunter getting 14, 13, and 10 kills from Kyle Foley, Ahmed Mohamed, and Annes Deljanin, respectively. Foley and Deljanin were especially efficient with their swings, posting hitting percentages of 0.267 and 0.381, respectively, the two highest marks for players with more than 2 attempts.
Alex Casais of NJCU posted a match-high 52 assists and also had a match-high 2 service aces. Hunter’s setter combination of Wesley Stubbs and Brandon Yeh totaled 37 assists on the afternoon. NJCU’s Anthony Matute led all players with 18 digs with Pardasie adding 15 digs to his kill total. Hunter’s Admir Cekic had 14 digs and added to his defensive showing with 2 solo blocks and 1 block assist, totaling 2.5 blocks of Hunter’s game-high 16. Deljanin and Wyatt Kotuk each had 3 solo blocks and 3 block assists, Stubbs had one solo block and 2 block assists, and Mohamed had 4 block assists on the day. The Gothic Knights had 10 blocks in their own right, with Mike McGehee recording 6 block assists, De Souza tallying 5 block assists, and Pardasie, Peralta, and Matthew McSorley each having 1 solo block in the match.
NJCU took the first four points of the opening set and raced out to a 13-6 lead. But the Gothic Knights would let control slip just a bit and Hunter took advantage of it, scoring 9 of the next 12 points to trim their deficit to just 1 point at 16-15. NJCU regained momentum with a 6-3 spurt, making it 22-18, but their attack stalled and Hunter scored three straight points to make it 22-21. NJCU went side-out, trading points with Hunter and held game point at 24-22, but two Hunter kills, one by Deljanin and another by Foley, plus a pair of attack errors from the Gothic Knights made up Hunter’s 4-0 run to close the first set out 26-24 in favor of the Hawks.
The second set was much more closely contested with neither team holding more than a two-point advantage until Hunter used a 3-0 run to break a 12-12 tie and take a 15-12 lead. Despite NJCU trimming that lead to 1 on several occasions, Hunter was able to make the right play each time the Gothic Knights threatened to overtake them. The Hawks led 20-17 and again 23-20 before closing out the second set with a 25-21 win.
The third set followed much of the same from the second set except this time, Hunter’s 3-point advantage came after breaking a 9-9 tie. Maybe the slight change in pattern helped NJCU, or possibly it was a much-needed kill from Peralta that got the team going. Starting with that kill, the Gothic Knights went on a 6-1 run and turned their three-point deficit into a 2-point lead at 16-14. NJCU held that lead until a 4-1 run from Hunter put them back on top 21-20, just 4 points from advancing. This time, however, NJCU delivered a close reminiscent of what Hunter did to them in the first set. The Gothic Knights scored four straight points to take a 24-21 lead and then after a service error, Peralta gave his team life with a kill that closed out the third set, 25-22.
Hunter seemed to brush off the close defeat and came out strong in the fourth set. The Hawks used a trio of 3-0 runs to go from being down 5-4 to leading 13-8. NJCU cut into the lead ever so slightly, making it 13-11, but a block error swung things back to Hunter and put the Hawks up 14-11. That was the last point Hunter scored for a while, though, as the Gothic Knights strung together the longest scoring streak of the afternoon, rattling off 8 straight points before a service error halted the run. Kills from 4 different players, a combined block by De Souza and McGehee, and a couple of attack errors fueled the run that put NJCU up 19-15. Following the service error, the teams traded a few points and NJCU was just 4 points from forcing a 5th set, leading 21-16. Hunter did everything they could to keep that from happening, closing the gap with a 4-0 run that made it 21-20, but back-to-back kills by Peralta settled things for NJCU. Hunter again made it interesting, making it a 24-23 game a few points later, but De Souza put the exclamation mark on an already great semifinal with a kill that finished off the 25-23 set.
Normally in the shortened 5th set, the team that jumps out to an early lead is able to ride that to victory. In this case, however, NJCU’s 5-2 lead evaporated rather quickly as Hunter scored 5 of the next 7 points to tie the game at 7-7. Then, moments later, after an attack error by Pardasie and a kill by Hunter’s Jon Domingo, the Hawks had taken a 9-8 lead. The tides turned back to the Gothic Knights with a momentum-seizing 6-1 run, turning that one-point deficit into a 14-10 lead. Hunter fought off two match points but De Souza again had the last kill of the set, this one sealing the match victory and sending the Gothic Knights to the championship match.