EAGLES FLY PAST BLUE ANGELS FOR 10TH WIN

The Screaming Eagles took to their home court on Saturday in an effort to maintain the momentum garnered in their victory over College of Staten Island earlier in the week.  The Eagles avenged an earlier loss a few weeks back to College of New Rochelle with a 3-1 win in the opening weekend match to push their overall record to 10W-14L, improve their home record to 6W-3L and extend their winning streak to 2 matches. 

CSE opened the match with the Blue Angels of New Rochelle looking to avenge an earlier loss to the CNR on a neutral floor when the Eagles were without 2 starters.  The Eagles and CNR were locked in a tight set early as both teams had trouble finding their offense.  A Subhana Wrights kill to tie the score at 9 sparked a 4 point run by CSE with another kill by Wrights and 2 aces by Nicole Morera. 

The Blue Angels closed to within 1 at 14-13 but  a key block by Kareemah Muhammad and Kiana Cunningham sparked another run by the Eagles that featured a kill and an ace by Cunningham and another kill by Ireyah Stevens that pushed the CSE lead to 21-15.  An ace by Katie Cooper finished the set off a few points later at 25-16.

The second set saw the Eagles fall behind early 4-1 but Wrights and Cunningham hit for a couple of kills each that helped CSE tie up the score at 5.  Although the teams swapped points through the midpoint of the set, Wrights added another kill and a block while Muhammad pounded out another kill to lift the Eagles to a 15-11 lead.  CNR fought back and took the lead late at 22-20 with an ace but off a timeout by the Eagles, Morera hit for a critical kill and Wrights followed suit with 2 consecutive unstoppable attacks that had CSE up 24-22.  Fittingly, after an Eagle service error brought the Blue Angels to within 1 at 24-23, a perfect pass by Cooper led to a perfect set by Cheyenne Grant to Wrights who was too much for CNR as the Eagles took the 2^nd set 25-23.

The third set saw the Eagle serve receive disappear and the squad was down 22-6 before CSE was able to recover.  Grant pounded out 2 straight aces and brought the Eagles to a 23-11 deficit but the damage was done and the Blue Angels closed out the set 25-12 which sent the message that the Blue Angels were not going to roll over in this match.

The Eagles got the wake up call they needed in the 3^rd set and came out flying in the 4^th set, taking a 5-0 lead early as Wrights hit for 4 kills and Morera for 1 in the run.  But the Blue Angels kept chipping away at the lead and jumped ahead of the Eagles 12-11 before a Morera kill tied up the score at 12.  A Grant ace and another Morera kill had the Eagles up by 2 at 15-13.  A series of Blue Angel errors later and a Wrights kill had the Eagles up at 18-15 but CNR  kept chipping away at the CSE lead and after a block on Wrights, the Blue Angels took a 19-18 lead. The Eagle defense came to the forefront at this juncture as numerous block touches by Cunningham, Wrights and Stevens forced the Blue Angels into hitting errors as they looked for that elusive kill. A Cunningham and a Stevens kill pushed the Eagles lead to an insurmountable 23-20 lead that CSE would not relinquish.  The Eagles took the set and match a few points later (25-21) for their 10^th win of the season.

CSE hit .241 for the match as they hit for 44 kills to only 18 errors for the entire match.   In the final set, CSE hit for a .228 average on a 14 kill performance that fueled the 4^th set victory.  Subhana Wrights led all players with 15 kills and a .464 hitting %.  Nicole Morera and Kiana Cunningham tallied a combined 15 kills .  Cheyenne Grant tallied a team leading 4 aces and 30 assists. Katie Cooper had a team leading 21 assists in the win.  Kareemah Muhammad had a perfect 14/14 serving performance with 1 ace and had team high 2 blocks with teammate Cunningham.