Rockville Centre, N.Y. - The Adelphi University fall sport season officially concluded Thursday evening as the no. 8 seeded volleyball program suffered a 3-1 loss to the top seed and host Molloy College, inside Quealy Gymnasium.
Sara Mandreja ended her sophomore season once again as the leading attacker for the Panthers (14-11) in the loss, accounting for 13 kills as rookie
Sofia Pinzon matched her career-best mark of 11. The Lions (26-4) saw two players reach double-figures in Kasey Affrunti, the D2CCA East Region Player of the Year and Carly Banks, who became the program's all-time kill leader in the win.
In the opening set, neither team led by more than five points, but the home team managed to come out on top by a narrow 25-22 victory. The teams exchanged leads in the early going as the Lions managed to move to a five-point lead, but with
Katarina Warburton at the serving line, the visitors evened the match at 15-all.
Katie Barry recorded two late kills with the home team at set point, however Banks notched her fourth kill of the night to take the first set.
The top-seed in the East Region once again found themselves ahead of their opponent until five straight points for the Brown and Gold saw them come within one. Freshman Sam Collins recorded a kill and
Naomi Ruffalo was responsible for a service ace in that stretch. Adelphi got as close as one again at 21-20, but Molloy collected four of the final five points to move to 2-0 in the matchup.
Adelphi used extra points in the third set to avoid a sweep in the first round contest, taking a 26-24 decision to stay alive for at least one more set. Mandreja recorded the kill to reach set point but the Lions notched the next two to make it 24-all. A Molloy miscue proved advantageous for Adelphi as Barry and McKenzie combined for a block to win the set.
It was the home team that quickly garnered momentum in the fourth set, jumping out to a 13-5 lead. Affrunti put up a solo block that all but sealed the deal for the Lions down the stretch. Strong defense at the net, which included a solo block from Collins, and timely kills for the Panthers allowed them to stage a comeback, however the deficit was too great to overcome.
With the loss, the Panthers conclude the 2019 campaign at 14-11 overall, but marks the 13th straight season that the program has made a postseason berth (either NCAA or Northeast-10 Conference or both). Head Coach Danielle Macknight boasts a career record of 285-141 through 13 seasons at the helm, with three conference championship titles.
