The Baruch men's volleyball team came away with a 3-1 win against the Philadelphia Biblical Eagles on Tuesday Jan 31, at their match held in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.
The match launched the men's official season, and they are off to a great start.
The men's team fought to get a hold of their unity and the lead when they lost the first set, 26-24. Baruch had 8 kills and 6 errors.
The game was a constant back and forth, with both teams fighting for each point.
Baruch won the first point of the set and then after a few rallies, the score found itself tied at 6-6, and again at 12-12. With half of the game over, it was definitely unclear what team would walk away as winners.
Both teams had persistent streaks of kills. The same showed through with scores like 15-15 and 18-18. Finally, the tie score of 24-24 was broken by two points scored by the Eagles.
This may partly be because of their lack of experienced upperclassmen players on the court.
Since a lot of their star players graduated last year, there were many spots open for incoming freshman , along with many sophomores who didn't see much of the court before.
Head Coach Allison Stack said, "Because we have such a young team and so many new players, our biggest challenge will be to build strong team chemistry and consistency. At this point we're still making rookie mistakes."
However, they didn't let that stop them and the next three sets were theirs. Although the Eagles kept a close trail with scores 25-22, 25-19 and 25-23, Baruch came out on top.
The second set wasn't looking too good for Baruch either until they came back from a score of 18-15, Philadelphia, and ran away with the lead.
"We played with good energy consistently throughout the match but they scored on us from a few serves in a row. We were able to pick that back up; like every game, we came from behind." said starting freshman Taylor Higgs
That ability to get back in the game came from the three key elements coach Stack was looking for: consistency, determination and talent.
"Every game I've always been nervous. Libero is kind of a key position, always playing in the back row and the team depends on you to get digs and passes all the time so its' an honor to be starting as a freshman , not many people get do it," said Higgs.
The third set, was a great indicator of how the match would end up. Stuck at 20 while Philadelphia caught up to make the score 20-18, Baruch were not going to let themselves lose the lead, or the set. The final score of that set was 25-19, Baruch.
The fourth set was all the Bearcats needed to walk away with the win. Although it was close, Baruch won in the end.
The score and possession were constantly changing. Each player on the team really stepped up to do their part with kills by Nick Smith, Vincent Cruz, Christopher Kaimis, Steven Coniglio and Sam Park.
The Bearcats have some important conference games coming up before they host the Baruch tournament on Feb 25.
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