Rockville Centre, N.Y. -- Facing cross-island rival Molloy College, the Adelphi University volleyball team played a sparkling opening set before being forced into extra points in sets two and three to see off the Lions in straight sets (25-14, 27-25, 29-27) on the road on Tuesday night.

A trio of Panthers (5-6) tallied double figures in kills, led by 15 from reigning Northeast-10 Player of the Week Melissa Rigo. Amanda Borges recorded a career-high 13 kills behind a .333 hitting percentage, and Mandy Stanislovaitis also put down 11. Rigo and Stanislovaitis also played a part on defense, recording double-doubles behind 11 and 12 digs, respectively, as Sierra Crook dug up 20 to anchor the back row. Megan Manierski ran the offense to the tune of 49 set assists, while Rigo, Borges and Madison Canestrari all tallied three blocks.

The Panthers hit a robust .405 in the opening set, with 18 kills on 37 attempts with just three errors. Two kills from Amalia Saleh and another from Rigo accounted for the first three points of the match, and six Adelphi kills in the next 10 points gave them a 9-4 lead and forced the first Molloy timeout. From that point, Adelphi went on a tear, and opened up an 11-point lead at 17-6 thanks in part to Borges, who recorded two kills and blocked back a Shannon Wren attempt alongside Saleh for three straight points at the end of the run.

Out of a second timeout, the Lions (2-11) went on a 6-1 run to pull a little bit closer at 18-12, but seven of the last nine points went Adelphi's way as the visitors pocketed the opener on another Rigo kill. 

Adelphi started the second set in similar fashion, opening up a 7-2 lead, and continued to lead by a margin of five at the midway point of 16-11 when Stanislovaitis and Canestrari finished off back-to-back kills. From there, the Lions started to build a bit of momentum with three straight points, and continued to push late; behind a pair of kills and an Adelphi misuce, Molloy got to its closest margin of the set at 21-20 and forced an Adelphi timeout. While the Panthers scored the next three points to set up four opportunities to take a 2-0 lead, the Lions took advantage of three attack errors to knot the set at 24-24. After a service error gave the advantage back to Adelphi, a Danielle Williams kill saved another set point for Molloy -- but their own service error and a Borges kill wrapped up the set for the Brown and Gold, 27-25.

An early lead for the Lions in the third set quickly fell away, but the two teams were evenly matched for the duration of the set which saw 17 total ties. With the set poised at 17-17, it was the home team that scored three of the next four points to push to 20 first, looking to extend the match, before Adelphi hit back for two an evened the set at 20-20. A kill from Canestrari and a block from her and Katherine Ferris set up match points for Adelphi at 24-22, but the Lions staved off both and a third at 25-24 before setting up their first set point chance at 26-25. A Molloy error and a Stanislovaitis kill then gave the Brown and Gold a fourth chance to close it out, but that too was snuffed out by a Hailey Wher kill -- but the Panthers would not miss a fifth chance, as Borges and Rigo tallied back-to-back kills to end the match.

The Panthers are back in action on Thursday, Sept. 22 when they travel to Lakewood, N.J. for a 6 pm non-conference meeting with Georgian Court.

NOTES
- Borges' previous career-high in kills (12) came twice, including once earlier this season.
- Rigo's NE-10 Player of the Week honor was the first weekly award for the volleyball program this season.

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About Adelphi Athletics:
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009 and in the past seven seasons, has collected 18 regular season conference titles, 22 tournament championships, 29 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup three times (2013, 2014, and 2016), while winning five NCAA Division II National Championships.

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