The top seeded Baruch Bearcats beat the fourth seeded Lehman 3-1 (25-13, 25-18, 16-25, 25-16) in the Semifinal round of the 2009 CUNY Athletic Conference volleyball championships. Baruch advances to the championship game later tonight at 8 p.m., against the winner of the Hunter/CCNY match.

"Lehman is the toughest four seed we've seen," said Baruch coach Allison Stack. "We're just really, really excited to be in the championship match."

Lehman scored the first point of Game One, only to have Baruch score seven consecutive points to take charge. Lehman took a timeout, and rallied with a 10-5 run to cut the score as 12-11 Baruch. But the Bearcats then went on a 13-2 run to win the first game 25-13.

Game Two started with Baruch taking command with a 11-5 start. Lehman’s Gerri-Ann Martin then took charge, and served the Lightning to five straight points. With the score 11-10 for the Bearcats, Baruch took timeout to regroup. The Bearcats were just too strong, and took Game Two 25-18.

In Game Three, again Lehman scored first, and jumped out to a 7-5 lead. The lead would never swing back to Baruch, as Lehman extended their lead to 18-13. Baruch tried to stem the run, but could not. Lehman went on to win 25-15.

"We tried to rest a few players," added Stack. "But Lehman was too good. We had to play everyone."

Game Four turned out to be the deciding game, as Baruch took the match. The game was very even early on, with the score tied 6-6. Baruch notched three straight points, which led to a Lehman timeout. Baruch was just the stronger team, extending their lead first to 11-7, then 18-13, then to 23-15.

Christina Pierre led the way for Baruch with 13 kills, while Carissa Hoover added ten. Melinda Santiago contributed 34 assists while Posey Wilson added 14 digs.

Lehman was led by Gerri-Ann Martin’s 15 kills as Racine Brown added ten. Lisa Jagdeo contributed 31 assists while Jillian Acevedo had a match-high 19 digs.

BOX SCORE