No. 4 New Paltz State 3, Brooklyn 0
No. 4 New Paltz State 3, CCNY 0
MAHWAH, N.J. -- Fourth-ranked New Paltz State started the 2014 season off on the right foot, dealing a pair of straight-set losses to City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) teams on Saturday at the Roadrunner Invitational hosted by Ramapo. The Hawks beat Brooklyn 3-0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-15) before topping CCNY 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-17).
New Paltz moved to 2-0 overall, Brooklyn fell to 0-2 and CCNY dropped to 0-2 after the day's matches.
Against Brooklyn, New Paltz finished with a .486 hitting percentage, which was achieved off 41 kills and just seven attacking errors on 70 total attempts.
Junior setter John Lutjen played in all three sets, finishing with eight kills, 15 assists, two service aces and a .727 (8-0-11) hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Christian Smith doled out a match-high 18 assists and had three service aces, while senior outside hitter Brian Smith notched six kills and five digs.
For Brooklyn, sophomore middle hitter Antony Koyfman totaled five kills, and Hui defended seven digs.
New Paltz continued to score at will against CCNY, hitting .444 in the first set and .545 in the second set en route to fashioning an overall hitting percentage of .386. Furthermore, the back row played well, totaling 26 digs to the Beavers' 14.
Lutjen led a balanced attack once again with seven kills, while C. Smith and Lutjen dished out 13 and 11 assists, respectively. C. Smith totaled five digs, while Gus Gregory provided two service aces.
David Avezov led CCNY with five kills, and Anthony Reyes finished with 10 assists. Nicholas Siriban registered five digs to pace the Beavers on defense.
No. 1 Springfield 3, No. 10 New York University 0
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Top-ranked Springfield battled past 10th-ranked New York University in three sets on Saturday evening in Blake Arena behind another standout performance by Luis Vega. The Pride won by the scores of 25-22, 25-11, 25-22.
Luis Vega notched a match-high 13 kills at a .474 clip, to go along with three blocks. Ryan Malone chipped in five kills and four aces, while Jimmy O'Leary added five kills and three blocks. Keaton Pieper was credited with 30 assists in the win.
Despite hitting just .293 for the match, Springfield erupted for 12 service aces to win in three sets.
NYU was paced by Chase Klein, who tallied nine kills, and Colin LaPorte, who registered eight kills and two blocks. Phil Bueno registered a match-high five blocks and Connor Mortland dished out 23 assists.
No. 1 Springfield 3, York (Pa.) 0
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Springfield made quick work of visiting York (Pa.) on Saturday, sweeping the Cardinals by the set scores of 25-7, 25-14, 25-14.
Springfield has now put together three consecutive wins to even its record to 3-3, while York drops to 0-2.
Greg Woods was dominant in the nightcap, hammering a match-high 10 kills on a .600 hitting percentage. Ryan Lilley and Angel Perez each tallied five kills and Luis Garcia Rubio and Keaton Pieper combined for 29 assists.
Springfield hit .491 in the match, totaled 11 team blocks, and held the visiting Cardinals to a -.116 hitting percentage.
No. 3 Juniata 3, Hunter 1
No. 3 Juniata 3, No. 13 Kean 0
HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Third-ranked Juniata swept Day 2 of its home opening weekend to improve to 5-0 overall Saturday. The Eagles topped Hunter 3-1 (23-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-19) in the morning before defeating No. 13 Kean 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-20) in the evening. The Eagles hit almost .300 as a team and earned more than 21 blocks to remain undefeated on the year.
Sophomore Matthew Kinnebrew led with the match against Hunter with a career-high 18 kills with only two errors for a .552 hitting percentage. He also added in a career-high six blocks. Fellow sophomore Matt Elias picked up team-highs of 29 assists and eight digs.
As a team, the Eagles sided out 73 percent of the time and hit a team-best .611 in game two. They went .344 collectively at the net for the match.
Junior Paul Kuhn hit .440 with only three errors en route to his match-high 14 kills against Kean. Elias picked up another 30 assists and sophomore Brendan Smith earned a match-high 12 digs.
Juniata trailed 22-20 in set one before pushing three points to take the lead 23-22. A service error would tie it up, but the Eagles responded with a kill from senior Alex McColginto get to set point and a Cougar hitting error would give them the win.
Set two told a different tale as the Eagles score first and never relinquished the lead. Kean put up a fight in set three, but committed too many errors at the net that the Eagles capitalized on to close the match.
Quincy 3, No. 7 Carthage 2
QUINCY, Ill. -- Quincy came away with a thrilling five-set win (25-22, 25-21, 19-25, 25-27, 15-13) against Carthage on Saturday in non-conference action at Pepsi Arena.
The Hawks picked up wins in the first two sets before Carthage battled back to force a fifth set. Carthage – ranked No. 7 in the national poll and playing its season opener – had a 12-9 lead in the fifth set, but the Hawks rallied to score six of the last seven points in the match for the win.
The victory earned Quincy (3-2) a weekend split after falling to Ohio State on Friday night in its conference opener.
Quincy was led by sophomore Jack Gamache, who matched a career-high with 18 kills (.342) to go with 10 digs for a double-double, in Saturday's win. Sophomore Ian Lawson also had a double-double with 15 kills (.104) and 12 digs.
No. 10 New York University 3, York (Pa.) 1
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Tenth-ranked New York University kicked off the 2014 season with a win against York (Pa.) on Saturday before falling to No. 1 Springfield in the nightcap. The first match was won in four sets (20-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-15).
After not holding a lead in the first set against York, the Violets got out to a hot start in the second and never looked back. The squad hit an impressive .326 for the match and out-killed York 49-33.
"It is always good to start the season off with a win," head coach Jose Pina said. "We had a slow start with our serve-receive, but made some adjustments and was eventually able to impose our will."
