Box Score

Garden City, N.Y. – Earlier this afternoon, the Adelphi University volleyball team closed out the regular season against the Purple Knights of Saint Michael's College on senior day. Despite dropping the opening set, the Panthers rallied from behind to win three straight sets and win the match 3-1, (20-25, 25-14, 26-24, 25-18). With the win, the Panthers secure the #2 seed in the NE-10 Tournament and improve their record to 22-10 and 13-2 in the NE-10 while Saint Michael's drops to 10-16 overall and 2-13 in conference play.
 
Back-to-back kills by the visitors put the Purple Knights up 12-7 in the first game and forced the Panthers to use a time out.  St. Michael's would increase their lead to as much as 15-8 but the Panthers would slowly chip away at the lead from there. A kill by Chelsea Overholt sparked a 9-5 run for the Panthers which would cut the deficit to 20-17. However, a 5-3 run at the end of the set for the Purple Knights gave them the opener, 25-20.
 
The Panthers fell behind early, but used an 8-0 run, sparked by a kill from Kaitlyn Destefano, to break open the set and lead 10-4. Although the visitors challenged early, Adelphi would never relinquish their lead and pulled away late as back-to-back kills from Overholt and Kaitlyn Destefano put the hosts up 21-13. The Brown and Gold would wrap up the set moments later on the strength of a kill from Haley Blunt, 25-14.
 
The Purple Knights put together a 9-1 lead early in the third set on the strength of five kills and four Panther errors. The Panthers put together an 11-5 run from there, punctuated by back-to-back kills from Emily Dorko and DeStefano, to close the gap to 14-12. Five straight points for the Purple Knights would give them a 19-12 lead, but three straight kills from the Panthers put them within striking distance at 19-16. The Purple Knights won four of the next seven points to take a 23-19 lead, but back-to-back errors put Adelphi back in the game at 23-21. A service ace from Katie Bryson and another Purple Knight miscue knotted the action at 23-23. Two consecutive kills from Samantha Rico and another by Overholt gave Adelphi the set, 26-24 and a 2-1 lead.
 
The Purple Knights followed their pattern from the previous sets and back-to-back kills gave the visitors another early 9-5 lead. The Panthers trailed by as much as five at 15-10 but used a 7-2 run to knot the action at 17-17 courtesy of consecutive kills from Overholt. The Panthers took control in the latter stages of the final set, and used an 8-3 run, capped by another Rico kill, to close out the set 25-20 and match 3-1.
 
Offensively, the Panthers were led by a double-double from Overholt who notched 20 kills and 10 digs with a .333 hitting percentage. Destefano and Rico were the other Panthers with double-digits kills with 11 and 10, respectively. Katie Bryson led all players with 33 assists. Defensively, Bianca Hernandez led the team with 21 digs while Bree Popham added 13.
 
Next up for the Panthers will be the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament. The Panthers will be the number two seeded team and will host their quarterfinal match against the seventh-seeded team from American International College on Tuesday, November 13^th at 7 pm.