[The College of Staten Island has declared this match a forefit. Per NCAA rules, statistics and game scores stand. A win has been awarded to Pratt.]
BROOKLYN -- Pratt Institute fell 3-1 Saturday afternoon to visiting College of Staten Island in non-conference women's volleyball play on Senior Day at the Pratt ARC.
Pratt was a point away from overcoming a 2-0 match deficit and forcing a deciding set leading 24-21 in Game 4 before the Dolphins closed the match on a 6-1 run compliments of two Pola Poskrobko kills and three Cannoneers errors.
Poskrobko (Staten Island, NY/Susan Wagner) led all players with 11 kills and a .345 attack percentage, and CSI's Monica Concepcion (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) totaled a match-high 24 digs as one of three Dolphins with nine kills.
Pratt's Diana Lezama (Bethesda, MD/Hotchkiss) led the team with nine kills and a .185 hitting percentage in only three games played, tying with freshman Charlotte Burch (Lawrence, KS/Seabury) for team-high honors with 11 digs. Burch added five service aces and six kills as Pratt fell to 7-10 on the season.
Aside from the first of Alli Houghton's (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) match-high seven service aces that opened the afternoon, Staten Island led for almost the entirety of the first two sets. A 6-1 Dolphins run capped by a solo block, a kill and an ace from Selma Kolenovic (Staten Island, NY/Susan Wagner) closed out a Game 1 25-17 win. In the second set, a 7-2 Staten Island run led to a Patricia Keenan timeout trailing 12-7, and with the set tied 20-20, a pair of Poskrobko kills helped the visitors close out a 25-21 win.
After a tightly-contested last half of the second set, the first half of the third was equally as tight. Trailing 12-11, a Burch kill followed by back-to-back Houghton aces ignited a 13-2 run featuring two Lezama aces and three consecutive attack errors for CSI's Jonaldy Edouard. Staten Island rallied for three straight points with Edouard serving, but HVIAC Rookie of the Week Hannah Calderwood's (Clinton, WA/South Whidbey) kill closed out Pratt's 25-18 win.
An extremely tight fourth set featured 15 ties, with neither team ever leading by more than two points until back-to-back Lezama kills brought Pratt face-to-face with game point leading 24-21. Poskrobko answered with consecutive kills to force a Pratt timeout before a Poskrobko kill tied the set at 24-24. Tied at 25-25 a Houghton service error and an attack error from the sophomore handed Staten Island a 27-25 win.
For Staten Island (6-15), Edouard (Port-au-Prince, Haiti/Canarise) totaled nine kills and 11 digs.
In her final home match, Pratt senior Nicole Garcia (Bogota, Colombia/Damascus) led all players with a season-high five block assists to go along with six digs and four kills. Fellow seniors Melissa Au (Hillside, NJ/Union County Magnet) added six digs and three kills in three sets, and Renia Kagkou (Athens, Greece/Moraitis) chipped in with five digs, a kill and an assist in two sets before the trio was honored in a post-match ceremony.
Pratt closes out its regular season at Brooklyn rival Medgar Evers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs on Sunday, October 27.
