New Jersey City University Athletics

Box Score BOX SCORE

JAMAICA, QUEENS, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Sophomore outside hitter BESMIR ARSLANI (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Valley) pounded out 19 kills and senior setter/outside hitter JUSTIN BEAUMONT (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) tallied his 18^th career double-double as New Jersey City University improved to 3-1 on the young men's volleyball season with a 3-1 (25-20, 26-24, 22-25, 25-19) non-conference victory at York College (NY) on January 29.
 
NJCU defeated York (0-1) for the 15^th consecutive meeting dating to 1996 as the club floored 51 total kills and hit a collective .267.
 
Arslani, the 2012 Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year and a First-Team All-Conference selection, reached double figures in kills for the 27^th time in 35 career matches—77.1 percent of his outings—and posted a match-high in kills for the 21^st time as he hit .361 with 19 kills (19-6-36), nine digs and three service aces.
 
Beaumont, playing in a 6-2 offense for the first time this year, was dominant, providing 22 assists and 11 kills at a .360 accuracy rate (two errors, 25 attempts), adding six digs and three blocks.
 
Sophomore middle hitter IVAN PRENSA (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) was a kill shy of a career high with eight kills (8-4-18, .222) and a pair of blocks while senior setter GARY PRESTON, JR. (North East MD/Rising Sun (MD)) distributed 27 assists and six digs. Rookie libero NICK POH (Richmond, VA)/Varina (VA)) provided 10 digs. 
York had three players reach double digits in kills, led by junior middle blocker Leszek Stankiewicz (Iychy, Poland) with 13 kills (13-5-25, .320) and nine digs while freshman outside hitter Emmanuel Geffrard (Arcahaie, Haiti) provided a double-double of 10 kills (10-5-30, .167) and 12 digs.
 
Graduate outside hitter Jhonnattan Fernandez (Bronx, NY) chipped in 11 kills and hit .400 (11-3-20). Sophomore setter Jon Peter Sardea (Dededo, Guam) added 33 assists while junior libero Terrence Sutton (Brooklyn, NY) defended 13 digs.
 
“We played well in a lot of areas and are progressing nicely,” said first-year head coach Ray Vance. “Hamza [Elsammak] and Bill [Le] really stepped up. Bezz, Justin and Gary were solid and Ivan was a force in the middle. We grew tonight and hope to build on that in our conference opening weekend.”
 
In the opening set there were 10 ties and seven lead changes but most came early in the game, and NJCU had twice as many kills (12 vs. 6) while hitting .348 in the period (12-4-23). Leading 21-19, the Knights scored four of the final five points to win 25-20 and Arslani notched two of his four kills in the set during the final five points.
 
NJCU hit a stellar .371 in the second set and scored 17 of its 26 points off of a kill, led by Arslani who pounded out nine winners and no errors on 13 swings in the game—a .692 percentage. Beaumont hit .500 with four kills in the period. York led early by as many as four points before the Knights forced the first of five ties at 20-20. Kills by Arslani gave NJCU leads of 22-21, 23-22 and 24-23, but each time the Cardinals tied the set as a winner by Geffrard made it 24-24. But Prensa floored a shot for a 25-24 lead and a host attack error gave NJCU the set, 26-24.
 
York collected more kills than NJCU in the third (14-12) and fourth (12-10) sets and the Cardinals forced the match to a fourth game by holding on to win the third period, 25-22. Geffrard had five kills and no errors (nine attempts) in the game. York led nearly the entire set but by no more than four points.
 
In the fourth set, NJCU only committed four errors while the Cardinals had a dozen and Beaumont landed four kills with a pair of blocks without an error. There were eight ties and five lead changes but each was earlier in the period because tied at 11-11, NJCU unleashed an 8-1 run to seize a 19-12 advantage. NJCU pushed the margin to as much as nine, 23-14, before prevailing by six, 25-19.
 
NJCU will open its 2013 Skyline Conference schedule on Saturday, February 2 at 12 p.m. when it hosts a two-court, four-match quad with College of Mount Saint Vincent, Polytechnic Institute of Technology and The Sage Colleges; the Knights will face Mount at noon and Sage at 2 p.m.