Feb. 11, 2011

Box Score

Give Round 1 of the men's volleyball Battle of the Bronx to Lehman as the Lightning persevered through five grueling sets to defeat neighboring Mount Saint Vincent 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13) on Friday night at the Dolphins' Riverdale campus.

The first set was a warmup to the nip and tuck affair that would ensue as both teams fought to a 17-17 deadlock until a mini 5-1 run by the Lightning created a 22-18 advantage for the visitors. With Lehman at set point, Mount's Chris Bacchi killed a ball to draw the Dolphins within one, but Luis Colon put away a kill of his own to grab the first set for the Lightning.

Trailing 14-11 in the second set, the Dolphins fashioned a 6-0 spurt thanks to three kills from David Guerrero and some strong serving by Michael Quinn to grab a 17-14 lead. The Dolphins' burst was part of a larger 12-4 run that helped them take control of the set on the way to squaring the match at 1-1.

Quinn was once again in the middle of the action for the Dolphins in the third set as they similarly trailed 14-11 when his serving rotation came around. This time, his team ran off eight straight points to take a 19-14 advantage. Lehman closed to within 20-19 on several Dolphins' errors, but was ultimately left down two sets to one after Mark Sargente's kill closed things out, 25-21.

Playing with an obvious sense of urgency, Lehman grabbed early control of the fourth set behind an 8-0 run that included three kills by Luis Colon to take a 10-4 lead. However, the Lightning had to hold off a valiant attempt to end the match by the Dolphins as Mount fashioned an 8-1 streak of its own to pull within 17-16. Lehman took seven of the next 10 points as R.J. LeBlanc and Miguel Gallardo put away two balls a piece to help the Lightning knot the match at two sets each.

Tied at 4-4 in the decisive fifth set, the match took a turn in Lehman's favor on the back of an 8-3 run that featured four kills by Gallardo. Given the back and forth nature of the match, it was only fitting that Lehman was made to sweat out the end. Leading 14-9, Mount scored the next four points before Colon's kill finally allowed the Lightning to breathe a sigh of relief.

In the win the Lightning received strong performances from a host of players. Gallardo (nine kills, 33 assists, 15 digs) and Martin (10 kills, 20 assists, 23 digs) stuffed the stat sheet while Colon attacked with a vengeance – a team-leading 15 kills – and also chipped in 21 digs. LeBlanc pounded out 14 kills to go along with 10 digs.

The Lightning has now won three in a row to move closer to the .500 mark at 5-6 and will return to action on Thursday against host New York City College of Technology.