Box Score Garden City, N.Y. – Earlier tonight, the second seeded Adelphi volleyball team faced off against the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets of American International College in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Conference Championships at the Center for Recreation and Sports. The Panthers picked up a 3-1 victory (25-13, 25-18, 20-25, 25-22) to advance to the semifinals and improve their record to 23-10 on the season. The Yellow Jackets end their season with a 16-14 overall record.

The first game featured brief back-and-forth action but the Panthers used a 6-1 run, capped by a kill from Samantha Rico, in the early portion of the set to lengthen their lead to 10-4. The Panthers would never relinquish the lead from there, and put on a strong offensive display behind a .296 hitting percentage. Late in the set, the Panthers' lead swelled to 20-10 behind back-to-back kills from Kaitlyn Destefano and Chelsea Overholt, and they would close out the set 25-13 on the strength of a kill from Haley Blunt.

The second set proved to be closer than the first as neither team could put together a run of more than three consecutive points for the majority of the set. Consecutive solo blocks by Destefano and Rico gave the Panthers a four point lead at 19-15 but the Yellow Jackets hit back and scored three of the next four points to shrink the deficit to 20-18. However, the visitors would get no closer as the Brown and Gold put together a 5-0 run on the strength of five consecutive kills to close out the game, 25-18.

The Yellow Jackets showed some fight in the third set as an early 5-0 run gave the visitors a 9-3 lead, forcing Adelphi to use their first time out of the match. The visitors never trailed in the third frame and hit .241 to Adelphi's .100. AIC led by as many as seven points at 16-9 and 22-15 late in the set; while the Panthers closed the gap to 23-20, a Yellow Jacket kill and a Panther miscue gave the visitors the third set, 25-20.

Back-to-back kills by Emily Dorko and Overholt, followed by an ace from Bianca Hernandez began a 6-1 run for the hosts to open the fourth game. This time, it was the Panthers who never relinquished their advantage. While the Yellow Jackets would challenge, the Panthers opened up a 19-11 cushion behind another kill and an ace from Overholt, and eventually lengthened this lead to 21-12 on the back of a Destefano kill. The Yellow Jackets would pull back to 21-16 behind three kills and a Rico error, but the Panthers scored the next two points courtesy of an ace from Katie Bryson and a Blunt kill to take a 23-16 lead. The Yellow Jackets took six of the next seven points to challenge at 24-22, but a final Yellow Jacket error gave the Panthers the fourth and final game, 25-22.

Offensively, the Panthers were led by Samantha Rico and Chelsea Overholt, who each recorded 13 kills and Kaitlyn Destefano, who added eight. Katie Bryson led all players with 32 set assists. Defensively, Bianca Hernandez led the team with 18 digs, while Bree Popham chipped in 11.

The Panthers will face sixth-seeded Pace University in the semifinal round on Friday, November 16^th in New Haven, Connecticut on the campus of top seeded New Haven.