The Medgar Evers College men's volleyball team played a home non conference match against SUNY Purchase at the Cougars Cave in Brooklyn, NY, on Thursday, February 21.
The Cougars (7-0) defeated the Panthers (2-7) by a final score of three sets to one (25-17, 22-25, 25-18, 25-20). The team still sits as one of the final two undefeated teams in NCAA Division-III men's volleyball this season along with Fontbonne University (MO).
Medgar led wire-to-wire in the first set, amassing a 24-13 lead before closing out the set with a Nius St. Clair kill from a Romell Carter assist.
In the second set, Purchase jumped out to a 13-8 advantage before Head Coach Teresa Rodriguez called a timeout. After the timeout, the Cougars pulled within one point on five different occasions but were unable to catch the Panthers as the match was tied at one set apiece.
Set three started out close, with the teams tied at 12, but the Cougars stormed out to an eight-point lead with a 9-1 run to make the score 21-13. The black-and-gold eventually took the set by a comfortable seven-point margin.
In the decisive fourth set, the Cougars raced out to a big lead and amassed a 22-13 advantage. To their credit, the Panthers never quit and they fought back to make the score 23-21. At that point, the Panthers committed a service error and Enmanuel Jaquez finished the game off with his 13th kill of the match from Carter's team-high 20th assist of the evening.
St. Clair led all players with 17 kills while Jaquez also contributed a game-high 12 digs and added three aces. Gerod Humphrey added five kills, five blocks and three aces, while Austin Romeo dropped four aces.
Kareem Cyrus contributed 19 assists, Sebastiann Perez contributed 11 digs, and Jovan Scott chipped in five kills, four blocks and six digs in what was a complete team effort from the Cougars in which everybody contributed to the victory.
The win became even sweeter post-game, as the team enjoyed a delicious cake in celebration of Cody Ramsey's birthday.
The Cougars return to action on Tuesday, February 26 at 7 pm for a road CUNYAC matchup against John Jay College in New York, NY.
