Garden City, New York – The BMCC men's volleyball team lost a Region 15 road match to Nassau Community College in straight sets (19-25, 19-25, and 18-25) on Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Panthers record to 2-5 (2-3 Region XV), while the victory improved the Lions record to 6-10 (4-1 Region XV).

The Panthers' offensive attack registered a season-high 15 service aces, their third double-digit match with 10 or more service aces. Freshman Edwin Martinez (Bronx, New York) led all hitters with a team-best five kills, while classmate Emmanuel Lovingood (Queens, New York) placed a game-high five service aces. Fellow underclassman Hugo Paz (Mexico City, Mexico)  dished out a team-high 11 assists.
 
The Panthers had four players with two or more service aces in total, with freshmen Jonathan Duarte (Bogota, Columbia) and Paz connecting for three each and classmate Miguel Trejo (Brooklyn, New York) posting two of his own. Freshman Eugene Villarruz (Queens, New York) led the Panthers on defense with a team-best six digs.

Nassau Community College raced out to a fast 15-5 lead in the opening set, capped off by a Nikolas James kill. BMCC would not go away, scoring ten of the following 14 points to get the deficit down to four, 19-15, on a Lovingood service ace. After the Lions got the lead back to six, 21-15, on a bad set by Paz, the Panthers got the deficit down to four, 21-17, on a Weiduan Jiang (New York, New York) service ace. Nassau scored four of the final six points to take the first set 25-19.
 
The Panthers came out firing in the second set, building an early 12-7 lead on kills from Isah Mohammed (Lagos, Nigeria) and Martinez. The Lions roared back with five straight points to tie it at 12. BMCC got two consecutive points on an attack error from Nassau Community College and a Paz service ace before the Lions regained the lead 15-14 with two straight points on two Panthers errors. After the set was tied at 15 on a Lions service error, they never relinquished the lead, scoring 10 of the final 14 points of the set to take the second game of the match with a 25-19 win in the second set.
 
After both teams traded the first 12 points, the Panthers took the lead by one, 8-7, on a Paz kill. Nassau Community College then grabbed the rest of the momentum, scoring six straight points to take a 13-8 lead and never relinquished it en route to a 25-18 victory in the third set to take the match.
 
Brian Sandmeier led all swings for Nassau Community College with a game-high eight kills, Hunter Dunn distributed a game-best 18 assists, and Connor Williams registered a team-high three service aces. Hussan Kahn handled a game-best seven digs and also contributed on offense with seven kills.
 
The Panthers hit the hardwood again on Wednesday, March 20, against Middlesex County College at 6 p.m. in Edison, New Jersey. For more information, visit the BMCC Men's Volleyball Schedule Page.
 

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