Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi volleyball team will ride a 13-game win streak into its finale after securing a clean sweep of Southern New Hampshire inside the Center for Recreation and Sports Saturday afternoon, marking it's ninth consecutive shutout at home.
Prior to the game, the department and program honored the accomplishments of three seniors in
Brenna Valsted,
Samantha Collins and
Katie Schloss.
First year
Macarty McQueen and
Lilyen McCarthy both found themselves in double-digit kills through the afternoon, with 13 and 11 respectively, while McQueen also added 14 digs. McCarthy and Collins were lethal at the net, contributing five and four blocks, to help in the team's 10 total blocks for the contest.
The teams played a game of back-and-forth for the entire opening set, putting together a run here or there to take the lead, but somehow always managing to be at a stalemate once again. A service ace from SNHU locked the first frame at 20-all, but a kill from McQueen returned the sideout and with two straight kills from Collins, McQueen bookended the run with a kill of her own to reach match point. A timely block and kill from the Penmen brought them within one, but Collins shut the door with a stop at the net, resulting in a 25-23 victory.
Adelphi's energy did not slow or vanish once the second set began - jumping out to an 8-1 advantage before Head Coach De Gama called a timeout. The Panthers extended their lead even further on a McCarthy kill, following a
Noelle Alberda/McCarthy block to make it 15-3. Southern New Hampshire could not stop the pressure from Adelphi, as the home team closed out a 25-14 win to move to 2-0 in the match.
The last time Adelphi lost to SNHU was in 2017 in five sets, after they had jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
That was not the case in the penultimate contest of the regular season as the hosts toughed out a gritty 25-23 third set victory to win their 13th straight to make it a perfect October. The Panthers were down by two at 19-17, but used an overpass kill from Valsted and a missile from McQueen to even the score at 20-all. It was a huge stop for Collins and Alberda before an untimely attack error from the Penmen that sealed the deal for Adelphi.
Adelphi will take on Bentley University next Friday, Nov. 4 at the Dana Center and await seeding for the conference tournament, slated to start Thursday, Nov. 10.
