Garden City, N.Y. - The Adelphi University volleyball team handed Mercy University its first loss of the 2023 season on Wednesday night courtesy of a 3-0 sweep inside the Center for Recreation and Sports.
Quick starts in the first and third sets helped Adelphi (6-4) stay unbeaten in regional play so far in the young season (5-0), as eight Panthers record at least one kill. In her third appearance of the season,
Anna Oden paced Adelphi's attack with nine kills on 12 attempts for a match-high .667 hitting percentage, while
Lilyen McCarthy and
Samantha Meehan each chipped in seven.
Kambel Fiser paced the offense with 29 set assists and
Jamie Yonker paced the defense with 15 of the team's 41 digs.
Mercy (5-1) got a team-high 11 kills from Ayzaline Garay, and 10 from Larissa Schneid. Schneid also posted a double-double with 10 digs.
Two of Oden's nine kills came in the first 11 points of the match, as Adelphi opened up an 8-3 first-set lead and hardly looked back. Mercy knotted the score three times from then on, at 14-14, 16-16 and 18-18, but never took the lead, and the Brown and Gold won seven of the last nine points to take the opener.
The two teams went tit-for-tat in the second set, and Mercy led by two as late as 19-17. Four straight points, opener by a Schneid attack error and capped by a block of Garay's effort by Oden and Fiser, gave Adelphi a lead it would never relinquish through the end. McCarthy chipped in two kills in the eight final points Adelphi won in the set.
Two Meehan kills early in the third set, in an 8-2 run that turned a 5-4 deficit into a 12-7 Adelphi lead, helped spark a home run that Adelphi saw through to the end. The Panthers' lead was as much as seven late (19-12) and a kill from
Noelle Alberda ended the match in style.
Adelphi is back in action on Saturday on the road in Philadelphia, Pa. for a pair of matches, against CACC foes Chestnut Hill College and Jefferson University. First serve is set for 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively, at Jefferson.
About Adelphi Athletics
A regionally- and nationally-competitive NCAA Division II institution located in Garden City, N.Y., Adelphi University has been a proud member of the Northeast-10 Conference since 2009.
Winners of 17 NCAA Division II National Championships and four NE10 Presidents' Cups, Adelphi student-athletes have excelled at the conference, regional and national level, both on the field of play and in the classroom. In turn, the Adelphi University Department of Athletics is committed to fostering an environment of diversity, inclusion, equity and success, where its student-athletes can thrive both on campus and off.
Stay connected with Adelphi Athletics by following the Panthers at
AUPanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and wear your Panther pride by shopping for official Adelphi Panthers gear at
our licensed team store.
