CCNY’s Women’s Volleyball Team Advances to the CUNYAC Semifinals after sweeping the favored Brooklyn College Bulldogs.
If there’s anything that is to be said about having home-court advantage in the playoffs it’s this: it’s real.CCNY’s Women’s Volleyball team entered Tuesday’s CUNYAC quarterfinal with a 5-1 home record, winning 16 of the 22 sets played at Nat Holman Gymnasium.So, to no surprise, the Beavers continued their dominance at home, this time in their first home playoff game in four years, defeating Brooklyn College in a 3-0 sweep (25-21, 25-23, 25-14) to advance to the CUNYAC semifinals for the first time since 2012.“It’s a great feeling,” CCNY head coach Dalliana Toussaint said after the game. “Just being able to get my team here and having all of us on the same page and wanting to win, that’s a big thing for me. The fact that they were able to pull it out, that’s a big thing.”“What a better way to win than at our house.”The big thing for City on the night was the big night turned in by senior outside hitter Leticia Marotti, who played, along with the rest of the Beavers, one of the best games of the season. Marotti notched 13 kills, seven servie aces and six digs while fellow senior Kathlen Dos Santos added 17 assists with four service aces.“It was huge for us because it was our goal to get to the championship and now we did it,” Marotti said.The other big thing on the night was City breaking the streak of two straight losses to Brooklyn in the CUNYAC playoffs. City lost to Brooklyn 3-0 in 2011 and 3-1 last year, both in the quarterfinals.CCNY jumped to an early 6-1 lead in the first set thanks to a few early errors by Brooklyn. After the Bulldogs clawed back to within three, Marotti helped CCNY pull away with three straight service aces to push City to an 18-9 lead. The Beavers held Brooklyn’s late-set rally to win Set 1 25-21.Brooklyn’s only lead of the entire match came in the second set when they jumped to an early 3-0 lead, however City again rallied back to go up 13-7 at the midway point. Both teams stayed neck-and-neck throughout the second set as City tried to pull away, eventually pulling away at the very end taking the 25-23 win, going up 2-0 in the match. Senior Saye Chantl-Joseph helped lead the Beavers’ charge in the set with five kills and three digs.The third set was all City, as Marotti helped lead CCNY to an early 7-1 lead, on their way to the clinching 25-14 win, their largest defeat in the match.CCNY is set to take on a familiar foe in the top-seeded Hunter Hawks Friday night at Arc Arena at Baruch. These two teams met in the playoffs in 2012, where Hunter, then the No. 2 seed, defeated City in four sets (21-25, 14-25, 25-22, 8-25).