ISLANDERS KEEP WINNING STREAK GOING

By Niko Bulaon

The 3-0 JFK Islanders took to the court Tuesday night at the JFK gymnasium to defeat the struggling St. John’s Knights in two sets, 25-15, 25-20.

The Islanders started the first set with an easy 7-2 lead after kills from Brian Crowe and back-to-back aces from Kurtis Silva and Wayne Jesus. The Knights finally answered back with a kill of their own from Phillip Caguioa, but it wasn’t long for Islanders Ian Ilagas to step up and bring his team’s lead to 9-3.

With multiple errors by the Islanders, the Knights stayed right behind their opponents until an ace by Jesus sparked his team to step up. Jesus and Crowe pushed their team forward with multiple kills and aces, ending the first set with a kill from Jesus, giving the Islanders the first set advantage.

Islanders’ Ian Ilagas sends forth a powerful spike. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Crowe started the second set with a huge kill, but untimely errors put the Knights right on the Islanders’ tail. Errors from both the Islanders and the Knights had the lead changing, but consecutive kills from Jesus and Ilagas with three aces from Silva grew their team’s lead to 14-8.

Two aces from Jacob Ishizu and multiple errors from JFK put the Knights two points away from their opponents, 16-14, but an unfortunate error from St. John’s sparked an Islanders run.

Aces by Crowe put the Islanders up by five, 20-15. An ace from Thomas Untalan and errors from JFK cut the lead to three, 22-19, but a tip from Silva and an error from the Knights ended the second set, giving the Islanders the win.

“I’m happy about this win,” said Crowe. “But I think we could’ve worked harder.”

With the Islanders at a good start in the season, Crowe stated, “I think for the rest of the season, we’ll be partial okay. There’s still tough teams out there and we still need to practice more on consistency.”

Crowe led his team with three kills and six aces. Teammate Ilagas contributed with four kills and three aces.

Other Scores

Harvest def. GW 26-28, 25-23, 25-14

*The GW Boys volleyball team had not lost a regular season game since 2012 after going undefeated in 2013.

FD def. ND 25-9, 25-20

PHOTO GALLERY:

Knights’ Ray Bacalia blocks a spike from Islanders Ian Ilagas. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Knights’ Toy Matsushita tries to dive for the ball. (photo by Robert Balajadia)

Islanders’ Wayne Jesus gets a kill for his team. (photo by Robert Balajadia)