Garden City, N.Y. – For the third time in program history and the second straight season, the Adelphi University volleyball team was crowned Northeast-10 Conference champions, defeating the University of New Haven 3-0 in Saturday's championship match inside the Center for Recreation and Sports.

Shelby Stoner, who earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament, led an Adelphi (26-4) offense that hit .350 for the match with 12 kills on 15 attack attempts for an .800 hitting percentage. Also in double figures in kills was Mandy Stanislovaitis with 10, while Madison Canestrari and McKenna Clawson chipped in nine each. Megan Manierski joined Stoner on the All-Tournament team, piloted the offense with 37 assists and also chipped in five block assists. In the back row, Sierra Crook and Ajsha Mekulovic anchored the defense, combining for 25 digs. 

An early 7-5 lead for the Chargers was quickly turned aside by the Panthers, who scored six of the next seven points in the opener to force a New Haven timeout at 11-8. Adelphi kept its momentum going, and an 8-4 scoring run capped by a Mekulovic ace brought the score to 19-12 and the Panthers would eventually claim the 25-16 opener off a kill from Madison Canestrari.

Adelphi took an early second set lead and hardly looked back, doubling up the score at 14-7 off a Stanislovaitis kill. Another Stanislovaitis kill brought the score to 20-10, and although the Chargers claimed the next four points to force an Adelphi timeout, the Brown and Gold responded with five of the final six points to claim a two-set lead off a Charger attack error.

In the closest set of the contest, the Chargers took an early lead and neither side could firmly take hold of any run that went its way early. From an 8-8 tie, the Panthers won four straight points to take a 12-8 lead off a kill from Stoner, but New Haven rallied to knot the action at 13-13 and forced Adelphi to talk it over in a timeout. From that point, momentum slowly moved towards New Haven, and the Chargers brought up four set points at 24-20 to extend the match to four sets. Undaunted, Adelphi won the next six points to seal the title, as a kill from Canestrari kicked off a run that saw Stanislovaitis knot the score at 24-24 with two consecutive service aces. Facing another New Haven set point, Clawson put down a kill to make it 25-25 before going back-to-back with Stoner to finish off the match and crown the Panthers champions.

Adelphi, ranked #1 in the East Region in the lastest edition of the NCAA Division II East Regional rankings, will wait to see their opponent in the opening round of regional play in Monday's Selection Show, scheduled for 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, 21 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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