Volleyball Digs in to Beat Brooklyn in Cancer Fundraiser

Patchogue, N.Y.—The St. Joseph's College Golden Eagles (18-6) challenged their Brooklyn counterparts, the Lady Bears (14-6), on Saturday in a suspenseful match that also served as a "Dig Pink" breast cancer research fundraiser.  The two teams certainly put on a show for those in attendance, playing through all five sets with each game more unpredictable than the last.  The Long Island team and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee organized a 50/50 raffle, t-shirt sale and bake sale outside of the gymnasium to fundraise, keeping the philanthropic fans not only entertained, but also well fed. 

Capturing the last three sets, the Lady Eagles ultimately came away with the 3-2 victory as if they planned on keeping it close the entire time.

The Eagles came out of the gate confident and poised as Julianne Tierney (Bethpage, N.Y./ Bethpage) served seven unanswered points putting the Eagles up to a considerable lead.  The Bears seemed to catch their breath after this initial punch though and slowly worked their way back into the game, eventually taking the set in a 26-24 upset.

The second set saw a shell-shocked Lady Eagles as they scrambled to regain composure.  The Bears' momentum proved to be too strong to overcome however as they took an initial lead and maintained it for most of the game.  In the end, errors knocked the wind out of the home team and Brooklyn was again victorious, this time winning by an even larger margin, 25-19.

The sudden and unexpected deficit led the Eagles to a gut-check and, realizing they had to step up their game, they refused the Bears any lead in the third set…or the fourth or the fifth.  The home team kicked it into gear and clinched the match winning the last three sets 25-17, 25-21, 15-6, respectively.

Despite their initial precariousness, the Lady Eagles came away with a strong and well-rounded performance.  Heather Ferchland (Selden, N.Y./ Centereach) led the game in kills with 16. Tiffany Willms (Centereach, N.Y./ Centereach) had an impressive14 kills and 11 digs, Melissa Garibaldi (Seaford, N.Y./ Island Trees) amassed ten kills and 12 digs while Manuela Palacio (Islip, N.Y./ Islip) slammed down ten kills.  Tierney finished with 56 assists and eight digs.  Ashley Larrea (Islip, N.Y./ Patchogue-Medford) came away with 20 digs and Samantha Jacoby (Oakdale N.Y./ Connetquot) chipped in with a solid nine digs and six kills.

St. Joseph's next match will be a Skyline Conference Tournament playoff game against #5 Farmingdale State on Wednesday at 7:00 pm in the Danzi Center.  The Golden Eagles are the fourth seed in the tournament in which the winner earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship tournament.  They dropped a tight Skyline game to Farmingdale last week, 3-2. 

(Game Story by Caitlynn Webber)