Garden City, N.Y. – Despite dropping the opening set to the #8-seeded Southern New Hampshire University Penmen, the top-seeded Adelphi University volleyball team rallied for the 3-1 victory (22-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-16) in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Conference tournament on Tuesday night in the Center for Recreation and Sports.

With the victory, Adelphi will host both semfinals -- welcoming Le Moyne, American International and New Haven to the CRS for Friday's tilts -- and the championship match, slated for 5 pm on Saturday. 

Shelby Stoner paced a well-rounded Adelphi attack on the night, totaling 15 kills and eight blocks to be a force on both sides of the ball. Joining Stoner in double figures was Mandy Stanislovaitis, who tallied a double-double with 14 kills and 13 digs, and McKenna Clawson, who chipped in 10 kills and fell just short of the double-double with nine digs. Megan Manierski piloted the offense to a .290 attack percentage with 48 assists, while Sierra Crook anchored the back row with 25 digs. 

The Penmen opened up an early 5-2 lead in the opening set and rarely looked back from there, holding the lead for nearly the entire duration. The visitors' lead grew to five on three occasions, before the Panthers (24-4) began to rally back, knotting the action at 18-18 when Manierski and Stoner blocked back a SNHU offering and taking a 19-18 lead on a Clawson service ace. However, the Penmen scored seven of the final 10 points – behind three kills and four Panther miscues – to wrap up the set, 25-22.

In what was a close second set early, the Panthers went on a 7-1 scoring run midway through to double up SNHU at 14-7 on a Madison Canestrari kill. With Adelphi leading by eight, the Penmen scored the next five consecutive points to pull to within 18-15, but a service error swung the ball back to the Panthers, who squeezed out a 7-6 scoring advantage to claim the second set 25-20 on a Bailey Riedel kill. 

After trailing 7-5 early in the third set, a 5-0 scoring sprint capped by an Ajsha Mekulovic ace put Adelphi in the lead for good. Despite being held to just six kills in the set, the Penmen trailed by just four at 19-15, but the Panthers closed out the set with six straight points -- courtesy of five Penmen attack errors, two of which were blocked -- to take the 25-15 set. The final set was all Adelphi, as the Panthers sprinted out to a 9-3 lead that eventually ballooned to a 15-4 cushion. With Adelphi leading 21-8 after a kill from Stoner, the Penmen took eight of the next 11 points in their last stand, but Stanislovaitis sealed the deal with her final kill of the match to send the Brown and Gold into the semfiinals.

The Panthers will face Le Moyne in one of two semifinals on Friday evening, scheduled for 5 pm and 7:30 pm.

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About Adelphi University Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past six seasons has collected 16 regular season conference titles, 20 tournament championships, 27 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 President's Cup twice (2013 and 2014), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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