ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - As a member of the United Volleyball Conference, which currently boasts six teams in the NCAA Div. III Top 15, the Bard College men's volleyball team is used to seeing eye-popping statistics.
They just haven't seen it on their side of the ledger too often.
On Tuesday night, the Raptors dispatched Yeshiva University, 3-1, to snap a seven-match losing streak. Key to the victory was the career night of junior
Jesse Small, who had 18 kills and hit .412.
Small had never produced more than 11 kills in a match - he's done that four times - but he went off in the pivotal third set. Small had six kills on eight attempts with no errors (.750), and his power surge lifted the Raptors to victory.
Bard won the first set, 25-20, then lost the second set, 25-23. It looked like it was going to be a long night.
But the Raptors took control in the third set, hitting .462 and winning it, 25-15. The momentum carried into the fourth set; Bard got up, 7-2, and never looked back, winning it 25-18 to improve to 3-11.
Yeshiva (1-5) got nine kills from Benjamin Mann (Brooklyn, NY) and 15 digs from Joseph Lipton (Toronto, Ont.).
Alex Adams had 13 kills, four aces and nine digs for Bard.
Troy Robertson added nine kills,
Joseph Stier had a career-high 54 assists, and
Tyler Zowaski had 13 digs.
Shane McDonald had eight kills (.421), while Stier and
Kai Bernier-Chen added six kills apiece.
Next up is the Bard Raptors Tournament on Friday and Saturday in Annandale. The Raptors will play Mount St. Vincent and College of Staten Island on Friday, then City College of New York on Saturday.