(Bronx, NY) The Tigers traveled to the Swamp to take on the Caimans of Hostos CC on Thursday night in a region XV showdown of two teams tied for 5th place in the region. "This was an important game for us. Either way we knew the tie would be broken tonight and we wanted to separate ourselves from them and come out on top," said Head Coach Keith Heron.  And ready for the challenge were the Tigers.

Right from the beginning the Tigers came out strong, and played well against a Caiman team struggling with injuries. Hostos CC's star player and team leader #12 Seyma Soylu, was nursing a shoulder injury sustained over the weekend. She braved it out to play anyway, but was largely ineffective because she had trouble swinging her arm to hit. Instead of firing spikes down at FIT as expected, most of her shots were tips and pushes, rendering much of Hostos's attack ineffective.

At some point in each of the the three sets, Hostos made a run, but FIT did not give in to the pressure. After urging the team to be more aggressive in their attack in the second set, FIT responded by hitting with power. "Good things happen for us when we take full approaches and strike with power," said Heron.

Despite the final scores, Hostos did make a run in sets 2 and 3 and kept the score close until about the 13th point. Midway through the second set, freshman Erin Dee and sophomore OH Vanessa Bennish began to unleash the power and helped stop Hostos runs, swinging the momentum back in FIT's direction.  " The difference between this game and previous games was that we closed out sets with authority. The few times that Hostos built momentum, we were able to take it right back and close the sets and the match strong. We were very proud of how the team responded to the mid-set pressure," said Coach Keith Heron.

Top Tigers of the day:
Freshman Co-captain Arpi Dayian  (16 assists, 11 digs, and 4 kills)
Sophomore Vanessa Bennish  (9 kills and 12 digs)
Sophomore Meghan Chilson  (4 aces out of only 11 service attempts )

Next up for Tigers a double dual in Brooklyn at Kingsborough Community College on Saturday at 12 noon. The Tigers will take on top-seeded team in the region and undefeated Queensborough Community College at 12, then CUNY rival Kingsborough CC at 2pm. Come down and show your support for FIT volleyball!