BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The penultimate week of the regular season ends with a win for the Manhattanville College men's volleyball team as the Valiants got the job done on the road on Friday night with a four set win at Saint Joseph's Brooklyn. The team improves to 10-15 overall with the win and 6-8 in the Skyline Conference, sitting in sixth in the conference standings with nine days left in the regular season.
Wilton Martinez' (Bronx, N.Y./Celia Cruz Bronx HS of Music) double-double led the way in the victory as the rookie posted 14 kills and 17 digs. It was Martinez' second double-double of the year as he finished as the team's offensive leader on the night.
Jacob Fletcher (Rocklin, Calif./Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) and
Joe Gandarillas (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem HS East) both notched nine putaways, while
Pedro Barros Machado (Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil/Colegio Oficina) collected eight.
Getting his first start in the libero role,
Emil Morban Medrano (San Cristobal, Republica Dominicana/HS for Environmental Studies) had a team-high 19 digs. Gandarillas was also a defensive presence alongside Medrano and Martinez with 12 digs.
Idris Idris (Kassala, Sudan/JFK High School) and Machado made up 45 of the team's 49 assists. Idris led the way with 29 with Machado adding 16. Machado would finish as the team's leader in aces on the night with five, followed closely behind by Gandarillas' three.
The teams played three tightly-contested sets before the Valiants cruised to a dominant victory in the fourth to take the match. The Bears used the first sizeable run of the match, scoring four straight points, to open up a 5-3 lead. Manhattanville tied the set up at 5-5, the first of four tied scores leading up to an 8-8 mark. A Bear attack error tied up the match for the Valiants for the first of four straight points by the visitors, putting Manhattanville ahead 11-8. Manhattanville continued to hold the reigns, scoring nine of the next 13 points to pull away 20-12. Manhattanville continued to inch towards set point by going ahead 23-15, but the Bears rattled off five straight to get right back into it. Despite the comeback effort, the score was not on the Bears' side as the Valiants took the opening frame off kills by Gandarillas and Machado, winning 25-21.
The score was tied on 19 separate occasions in set two as the squads matched each other stride for stride. The largest run on either side peaked at three points. The latest 3-0 string was pulled off by Manhattanville to take a 19-17 lead, but the Bears scored the next two to tie things up again. The stalemate carried through to a 23-23 score, when the Valiants were able to close it out with a Fletcher kill and Martinez ace to win 25-23.
Despite logging a match-low five kills in the third set, the Bears were able to erase Manhattanville's seven-point lead in the third set to win 25-23 and send the match to a fourth set. The Valiants shook off the frame by hitting a match-high .333 in the fourth to win the match, logging 13 kills in the fourth to just two errors. Manhattanville scored the first three points and never looked back, soon after scoring six-straight points to go up 13-4. The Bears were unable to claw back this time around, with Idris putting the capper on the night with an ace to close out the 25-14 set win.
Up Next
The Valiants play their final home match of the season on Monday, hosting Purchase at 6 p.m.
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