Garden City, N.Y. - Taken the distance for the seventh time this season and the fifth on home court, the Adelphi University volleyball team held off a furious effort from Saint Anselm College to triumph in the Center for Recreation and Sport on Friday night (21-25, 25-19, 28-26, 17-25, 15-8).
Sara Bisbe and
McKenna Clawson combined for 31 of Adelphi's 79 team kills in the match, totaling 18 and 13 respectively, while
Grace Wegmann dished off 40 assists.
Katarina Warburton led the Adelphi defensive effort with 26 digs, with the second of her night being the 1,000th of her career, while Bisbe and Clawson each added double-doubles with 10 digs apiece.
Despite nearly doubling the Hawks' total kills in the opener (11-6), an inconsistent Brown and Gold attack lost six of the last seven points of the opener to fall behind, after having won six straight points to lead 15-13. Behind a .370 team hitting percentage in the second set, the Panthers leveled at one set apiece, and they won nine of the last 13 points of the set after a
Sophia Powless kill put them up 17-15.
The Panthers' momentum quickly built in the second set, anchored by Bisbe at the line, eventually building a 16-8 edge in the third set. However, the Hawks battled back, eventually knotting the action at 23-23. Saint Anselm saved three set points, but never earned one of its own, and a Bise kill gave them Adelphi fourth which it duly converted to take a 28-26 set.
Undaunted by its deficit, Saint Anselm (12-9, 4-5 NE10) pulled away from 7-7 in the fourth, scoring eight of the next 10 points to take a lead it never relinquished. The visitors capped the set and set the match the distance behind a Catie McCarthy kill, who paced the Hawks' effort with 10 on the night.
In a finely poised final set, in which Adelphi led early at 5-2 but saw Saint Anselm rally to tie at 6-6, a kill from Clawson and two aces from Powless gave the home team room to breathe. Adelphi cracked eight kills to zero attack errors in the final frame, and ran off the last six points on the strength of the serve of
Katie Barry, ending fittingly with the team's 16th ace of the match.
The Brown and Gold will have little time before return to action in the CRS on Saturday afternoon, welcoming Saint Michael's to Garden City for a 1 p.m. contest.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past nine seasons, has collected 27 regular season conference titles, 29 tournament championships, 41 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.
For the latest on Adelphi University Athletics, follow the Panthers at www.aupanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.
