CCNY Men's Volleyball Swept By Baruch

Baruch Bearcats simply overmatch CCNY Beavers- City swept for 10th time this season. Senior night at the Nat Holman gym began on a high note and on a sour one. In a valiant effort to maintain good position in the CUNYAC standings for the upcoming playoffs, the CCNY Beavers were beaten in three straight sets 25-18, 25-6, and 25-20. The Beavers came into the night’s game hoping to compete with the 11-1, second-place Bearcats, but instead were simply overmatched and outplayed.“Well… I didn’t expect to win this game but we just tried to fight. I’m sorry that in the second set we fell down so badly but at least in the third set we showed something”, said head coach Andrijana Todorovic after the loss. “It’s just important to keep fighting because we are fighting for sixth position. We don’t want to face Baruch and Hunter in the first round of the playoffs”.Surprisingly, although CCNY currently has a record of 5-17 overall and a 3-10 record in the CUNYAC, they are poised to make it to the CUNYAC Men’s Volleyball playoffs later this year. However, if they hope to survive past the first round, they will need to defeat teams that are bigger, stronger, and faster than they are. They will need to defeat teams such as the second place Baruch, and then some.“Well we played as hard as we could, you know. We can’t give more than what we were giving. If we lose, we lose trying… we lose fighting”, said senior outside hitter Anthony Reyes, who was honored before the game for CCNY senior night. Reyes totaled six kills, 24 total attempts and five digs in the team's losing effort.Middle blocker Leonel Pascual, who was also honored before the game as well said, “if we play our own game, and we’ve been saying it all year, we’re top-four potential. It’s just, we don’t play at out highest potential”.In the first set, Baruch jumped ahead with a 7-2 lead, benefiting from differences in intensity and playing at a faster rate than that of CCNY. Baruch had amassed four points by way of kills, sending a clear message of dominance across the dividing net. By the time first time out was called by CCNY, the Beavers were already in trouble as Baruch jumped to a commanding 11-3 lead. The Beavers came out gunning, slowly inching there way back into the game but Baruch was simply overpowering. The Beavers would eventually lose the first set 25-18.The match resumed with the second set picking up where the first left off, more of the same intensity. The Bearcats smelled blood in the water and went in for the kill. With a 9-5 lead, the Bearcats went on a torrid 10-0 run. The Beavers would only score once more before Baruch would go another 6-0 run to take the second set by a score of 25-6.In the third set, City began to show some life, finally living up to the “potential” that Pascual had eluded to earlier. City started to look alive for a quick moment and with the score tied at seven, Baruch called a timeout.Nevertheless, it proved to be too little and too late.Although this set was a much closer battle, Baruch would eventually win the war, taking the third and final set 25-20. Baruch’s kills were thunderous, intimidating, and their defense was relentless. They tallied almost twice as many kills than CCNY with total of 38 as compared to CCNY’s hard fought 22.With the season drawing near to an end and the CUNYAC playoffs almost here, the Beavers had need to start living up to their “potential.”  Granted, the team meshes well and plays well together.They communicate well, they enter every game highly motivated and determined, but what they lack is execution.“It just comes back to the basics, really. We were missing a lot of serves, we weren’t in position -- these are things that we’ve been practicing from day one” Pascual added.“So, it gets to a lot of guys, that we’re playing the number two team in the league but you just have to erase all of that.”