Box Score
The Lehman College men's volleyball team (1-2 Overall, 0-0 CUNYAC) dropped a tough non-conference match, falling to the Bard College Raptors (4-1 Overall, 0-0 NECVA) by scores of 30-27, 30-28, 24-30, 22-30, and 13-15 Saturday afternoon at the APEX Center in the Bronx. The Lightning looked to have the match in control after the opening two sets, but the Raptors roared back to record an impressive road victory.
In the victory for Bard College, freshman Nick Chan posted a match-high 27 kills to go along with 13 digs and three service aces while hitting .306 for the match. Also, it was sophomore Brice Ormesher adding 19 kills and 11 digs, and Raptors setter Andrew Cortrite recorded a whopping 42 assists while also tallying seven kills and six digs. Finally, it was sophomore Maxwell Howard adding seven kills and 14 digs in the win.
Leading the way for the Lightning despite the loss was sophomore Jonathan Cruz who continued his early season dominance as he recorded 17 kills to go along with 14 digs, four assists, and three service aces. The standout hit .216 on the afternoon. In addition, sparkplug junior RJ LeBlanc tallied 21 kills and added four digs, and the versatile Nate Martin tallied 31 assists, 15 digs, and three service aces for Lehman. Following the loss, Head Coach Daniel Skilins gave his thoughts on the defeat.
“I felt pretty confident in our ability to pick up a victory after our first two sets, but they developed a rhythm early in the third set, took off from there, and our team couldn't hold them off,” Skilins said. “Jonathan, RJ, and Nate played extremely well this afternoon, but we need the whole team to come ready to play and be ready to win, and hopefully we'll recover from this one quickly because we have a tough Hunter team coming to the Bronx in three days.”
For the match, the Raptors tallied 17 service aces, compared to just nine for the Lightning. Bard College also held the edge in the digs category, finishing the afternoon with 57 while Lehman College finished with 44.
The Lightning will return to action on Tuesday evening as the team takes on Hunter College in a CUNYAC contest, with match-time scheduled for 7:00pm. The battle is a rematch of the 2008 CUNYAC semifinal tussle that took place between the two teams back in March of last year. Hunter won that match in three sets, so Lehman will be looking for some redemption Tuesday night.
