Lehman Wins NECVA Championship Gets Berth to National Final Four

Providence, RI - Lehman College won the school’s seventh straight match defeating CUNY rival City College, 31-29, 30-28, 30-24, in the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association Tournament Championship at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI.

Lehman, 30-2, now earns the NECVA automatic bid to the Molten Division III National Championship, which will be played on April 22-23 at New York University. LaVerne (CA), NYU and Springfield (MA) complete the four-team field.

“It is the greatest thrill as a coach to see the joy on their faces,” said Lehman head coach Junior Garcia. “It is a very proud feeling to represent our school, the CUNY league and NECVA next week in the Molten.”

The Lightning stormed out to a 14-5 lead in the first game, setting the tone for the entire match. They eventually won the set 31-29, without letting CCNY (23-5) get a lead. In the two later games, Lehman also got big leads, putting too much pressure on the bigger Beaver team. Besides splitting two regular season matches this season, the two CUNY Athletic Conference schools faced off again last week in the CUNY final, producing the same result.

Lehman, the #1 seed, was led by freshman Alejandro Flores (Moca, Dominican Republic) with 23 kills. He tallied an astounding 73 kills in the Lightning’s three matches, making the freshman outside hitter an obvious selection for Tournament Most Valuable Player.

“I hope now that the rest of NECVA sees that Flores is the best player in the league,” said Garcia. “He has the ability to do everything. That’s why he won CUNY Player of the Year last week.”

Sophomore setter Troy Jimenez (Queens, NY) had his second straight triple-double with 10 kills, 27 as-sists and 11 digs for the Lightning, while freshman Max Valerio (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) added 16 kills and 14 digs. Both were named to the All-Tournament team.

CCNY, seeded third, had three players with ten kills, NECVA Player of the Year Owen Niles (Brooklyn, NY), NECVA Rookie of the Year Sebastian Hoffman (Leipzig, Germany), and sophomore Michael McFalls (Queens, NY). The Beavers only starting senior Welmer Magtoto (Queens, NY) had 37 assists.