West Haven, Conn. - The Adelphi University volleyball team will make their fifth trip in the last eight years to the NCAA Second Round, after capturing a three-set victory over 2018 Northeast-10 Conference Champion Southern Connecticut State University Thursday afternoon.
The Owls (22-11), who stifled American International College in the NE10 finals less than a week ago, were bounced in the opening round by the Panthers (27-6), who happened to match the program's single season win record at 27. This is the fifth season in Head Coach Danielle Macknight's tenure that she has reached this mark.
Leading the Panthers in the quarterfinal victory was junior outside hitter
Sara Bisbe who led all hitters in the match with 16 kills. The only other Panther in double figures was sophomore middle
Cara McKenzie, who also led Adelphi with an impressive .667 attack percentage suffering just one error in 15 total attempts. As a team, Adelphi finished with a .365 attack average with a combined 48 kills as five different hitters finished with a .250 hitting percentage or better.
Southern Connecticut went up 22-20 in the opener, and even had set point but the Brown and Gold battled back with the help of kills from
Grace Wegmann and McKenzie. Wegmann notched her seventh double-double of the season with 34 assists and 12 digs, and helped Adelphi capture the first set with a 28-26 decision.
The Owls opened the set with a 6-4 lead before Adelphi used an 11-5 run to take its largest lead to that point of the match. After Southern won the ball back, Adelphi once-again used a deep run, outscoring SCSU, 10-4, to close-out the second frame, 25-15. The Panthers took a 18-11 lead, but allowed their opponents to come within one down the stretch.
Sara Bisbe notched back-to-back service aces to go along with a game-high 16 kills to reach set point and
Sara Mandreja closed the door to send the Brown and Gold to the semifinals.
The Panthers will take on American International for the second time in as many weeks on Friday, November 16 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. All links can be accessed on the
Tournament Central page.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past nine seasons, has collected 28 regular season conference titles, 30 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.
