The Lehman College women’s volleyball team will enter the 2009 CUNYAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed after finishing their regular season with an overall record of 11-17 on the season, including a mark of 6-3 in the conference. The Lightning’s opponent in the quarterfinal round of the tourney will be the Dolphins of the College of Staten Island who come in as the No. 5 seed after completing their regular season with a record of 12-15 and a mark of 5-4 in CUNYAC contests. The match will take place tomorrow evening at the APEX Center, with match-time scheduled for 7:00pm.
The Lehman-CSI confrontation will be the third consecutive meeting in the quarterfinal round dating back to 2007. In 07’, the CSI eliminated the Lightning in three sets, but Lehman extracted revenge the following season, ousting the Dolphins in four sets. Now, in 09’, the two lock horns again with a lot on the line.
“This is going to be a very intense match,” Lehman College Head Coach Wolfgang Lucena said. “The 4-5 match in this tournament is always intriguing, and this one will be no different. I like where our confidence is, and I like the way we’ve played down the stretch. Staten Island is a disciplined group so we have to play sound volleyball tomorrow night and get the crowd behind us.”
The Lightning defeated the Dolphins in their lone regular season match way back on September 12th by a score of 3-1. Sophomore Gerri-Ann Martin dominated that match with 16 kills and 11 digs. The showing for Martin was indicative of the season she had, as she led the Lightning with a whopping 354 kills. Her 60 service aces were good for second on the team.
Lehman setter Lisa Jagdeo is another big reason why the Lightning earned the No. 4 seed in this year’s tournament. The standout posted a team-high 646 assists, and her 152 digs were tied for third-best on the squad. Junior Jillian Acevedo’s leadership and defensive ability were also key in Lehman’s surge, as she led the squad with 419 digs. Lucena hopes the Lightning will play as a cohesive unit tomorrow led by the three aforementioned players as well as the rest of the supporting cast.
“We’re going to need a great team effort tomorrow, but I’m confident that we’ll get it,” said Lucena. “The chemistry we’ve had this year has been terrific, and I believe we’ll come out and be on-par with one another and play well.”