New York, N.Y. --- The John Jay women’s volleyball team snapped a six match losing streak with a hard fought team effort win as the Bloodhounds defeated Centenary College, 3-2, at the Doghouse on Tuesday evening. Down 2-1, the Bloodhounds won the fourth and fifth sets to win. In the fifth set, John Jay overcame deficits of 11-7 and 14-12 to win 17-15.
John Jay won by scores of 20-25, 25-13, 14-25, 25-22, 17-15 to improve to 4-16 on the season, while Centenary is now 8-16.
The Bloodhounds had 53 team kills and were led by Tatyana Yachnik with 20 kill son just five errors, while fellow teammate Justyna Kopec had a career-high 16 kills. John Jay had a .241 hitting percentage.
Erica Lee had 38 assists in the match, while John Jay collected 56 digs and were led by Andrea Medina, playing the libero position for the first time this season, with 14 digs, while Lee contributed with 12 and Anjanette Perez added 11.
Centenary College was paced by Kelly Zegarowitz with 17 kills, while Devon Paffendorf had 14.
Centenary setter, Angelica Ruiz had 39 assists and seven digs, while Kelsey Walter had a team best 14 digs.
John Jay raced out to an early advantage in the opening set and led 13-5 before the visiting Cyclones chipped away at the lead, and with the score 18-14 John Jay, Centenary rallied back with seven straight points to take a 21-18 lead en route to victory.
But the Bloodhounds came back and countered with a 12 point win in the second set, the biggest margin of victory on the evening. Centenary came back to take the third set to go up 2-1 before John Jay came away with a three point win in the fourth set to force the fifth match.
In the fifth match, John Jay rallied out to a 4-0 lead behind the servicing of Reyes who had two aces and nine digs on the evening before the Cyclones came back and countered and eventually took the lead and led 11-7 in the late stages of the set.
But John Jay, behind the servicing of Yachnik rallied off three straight to pull to within one at 11-10.
Both teams stayed within two points of each other the rest of the contest. Centenary’s Devendorff nailed a kill to put the Cyclones up 14-12. But John Jay countered and rallied off three straight to lead 15-14. After the schools were knotted at 15-15, the Bloodhounds scored the final two points of the contest to win it capped on a kill by Yachnik.
John Jay returns to action on Thu. Oct. 9 at William Paterson at 7 p.m.
