Flushing, N.Y. (October 18, 2019) - With the regular season completed, the tournament field for the 2019 CUNYAC Community College / Pepsi Women’s Volleyball Championship is set. Four teams will now play on Monday at Borough of Manhattan Community College, as the tournament site was switched from its original location at Queensborough Community College. Two semifinals will be played back-to-back beginning at 4:00 p.m., with the evening concluding with the championship match.

For the seventh-year-in-a-row, Queensborough, won the CUNYAC regular-season title and clinched the No. 1 seed. The Tigers (17-5) were a perfect 6-0 in conference play, including 53 straight CUNYAC wins, dating back to 2012. QCC well balanced attack will be led by CUNYAC Preseason Player of the Year, sophomore, Paige Hughes. The outsider hitter led the team in kills with 137 (2.74 per game), has a hitting percentage of .270, as well as 158 digs (3.16 pg). 

Offensively, Tiffany Garcia-Lawson (.291 hitting pct.) and Georgia Alexiou stand just behind Hughes with 121 and 113 kills respectively. Freshman setter Amira Durkovic leads the high-powered offense and CUNY with 6.1 assists per game. In total, seven Tigers earned CUNYAC accolades this season with both Chidera Nwaghanata and Bianca Briere getting Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week multiple times.

The action will begin with No. 2 seed BMCC (8-8, 4-2 CUNYAC) taking on No. 3 seed Kingsborough (6-10, 2-4 CUNYAC). The Panthers swept the season series against the Wave winning  in four and five games, respectively. Sophomore Nolverys Fernandez leads the Panthers in kills (168), service aces (46),and digs (224). Fernandez recorded her season-highs in kills, aces, and points against Kingsborough. Freshman Kaylin Nieves tops the Panthers in assists with 251 total (4.83 per set).

Meanwhile, outside hitter Kinga Kupras has made an impact for the Wave. The sophomore ranks 12th in Division III with 5.38 digs per set (285 total). Kupras leads the team in serve aces and is second on the team with kills (63) behind sophomore Prhisany Skinner (138 kills, 2.60 per game).

In the second match, the Tigers will take on their familiar foe, No. 4 seed Bronx Community College (3-18, 0-6). Queensborough has beaten the Broncos early in the season, with one more match scheduled on the season finale on Saturday. Freshman outside hitter, Nayely Rodriguez led the Broncos with 35 serve aces and with assists (140), including a season-high 8 kill performance against Queensborough. 

2019 Championship Schedule:
#2 BMCC vs. #3 Kingsborough - 4 p.m.
#1 Queensborough vs. #4 Bronx - 6 p.m. (or 35 minutes after first game)
Championship Final to follow ( or approximately 45 minutes following 2nd match)

By Eldridg Chavez, CUNY Athletics