Lady Eagles Win Two Out of Three in NJCU Tournament

Jersey City, N.J. – In the last regular season matches of the regular season, the St. Joseph's Golden Eagles (19-12) took down CCNY (10-20) and New Jersey City (7-28) on Saturday but fell to Catholic (21-14). The Eagles used this tournament as a warm-up as they await their opponent in the Skyline Conference Tournament next week.

St. Joseph's got off to a slow start against NJCU as they fell behind early in the first set and were never able to muster a comeback. New Jersey City was serving for game point with the score 24-17 when the Golden Eagles began a furious rally behind the serve of Melissa Garibaldi (Seaford, N.Y./Island Trees). Garibaldi led St. Joseph's to four straight points but NJCU closed the door, defeating the Golden Eagles 25-21. The Eagles were coming for revenge in game two and after a back-and-forth start, they pulled away and never looked back. They evened the match at one after winning the second set, 25-12. The Eagles handled their opponent easily in game three 25-18. The fourth game wasn't as easy for St. Joseph's as they clung to a one or two point lead for majority of the game. SJC led 18-16 when they were able to distance themselves once again, scoring seven of the next ten points to give them a win in their first match of the day.

Heather Ferchland (Selden, N.Y./Centereach) led the Eagles with 21 kills and Garibaldi added 11. Captain Julianne Tierney (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) led her team to victory with 50 assists and 24 digs. Taylor Ahmed (Farmingdale, N.Y./Sachem North) finished the match with 23 digs.

After their hard fought victory against NJCU, a tired Eagles team took on the Catholic University Cardinals team with rested wings. St. Joseph's were able to stay competitive in the first set but Catholic refused to let them back into the game. The Eagles were down 15-16 but the Cardinals outflew them down the stretch winning nine of the next twelve points for a 25-18 victory. Catholic dominated game two, 25-17 but SJC was not ready to go down without a fight. They tied the game at 15 in their final attempt to fly back into the match but Mary Paige of the Cardinals served up ten straight points to put the Eagles away for good. Tierney led SJC in a losing effort with 27 assists.

In the final match of the day, SJC took on CCNY. After a tough loss against a rested opponent, the frustrated Lady Eagles dominated CCNY. They won each game by at least seven points, 25-12, 25-15 and 25-18. Tierney once against led her team with 28 assists and Courtney Wickline (Medford, N.Y./Bellport) had a team-high 13 digs in the match.

Julianne Tierney finished the day with 105 assists over the course of the three matches. Ferchland had 35 kills on the day. Wickline and Ahmed led the Eagles with 34 digs each. The Eagles will take on the winner of Farmingdale State and Purchase in the semifinal round of the Skyline Conference Tournament this Saturday at 1:00 P.M.