Freshman domination from Stony Brook helped the women’s volleyball team (5-7) split its games this weekend at the Seton Hall University Invitational.
The Seawolves fell in five sets (25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 14-25, 15-11) to tournament host Seton Hall on Friday, but rallied to sweep Morgan State 3-0 on Saturday (25-18, 25-16, 25-9).
Freshman Melissa Rigo, who is currently leading the team in points this season with 228, and fellow freshman Stephanie McFadden were named to the All-Tournament team.
Rigo, who now has four matches of 20 or more kills this season, recorded 21 kills in Friday’s match and 11 on Saturday, a game-high for the Seawolves.
McFadden posted 16 kills and a .500 hitting percentage on Friday.
The duo shared the spotlight with Nicole Vogel, also a freshman, who had 45 assists and 19 digs in Friday’s game and 19 assists on Saturday.
Vogel leads the team in assists so far this season with 352. She is well ahead of sophomore Hannah Dolan, who is in second place with 79.
It was a hard loss on Friday for the Seawolves.
The Pirates took the first set and then quickly took the lead in the second set as well, initially leading Stony Brook 8-1.
However, the Seawolves battled back, tying the game at 19 and then taking the set off a Rigo kill.
The team went on a 10-3 run in the fourth set, hitting 25.6 percent and picking up the win.
With each team’s having two wins, the match went into the fifth set. The set was tied at 10 when the Pirates scored four straight points to pull away.
Seton Hall had just one error to 10 kills in their winning fifth set.
Despite the tough loss, the Seawolves pulled together for an easy win on Saturday.
The first set started out evenly until junior Hailee Herc hit a pair of aces that started Stony Brook on a 5-0 run.
In the second set, SBU jumped to a 9-3 lead and won the game by nine points.
Six straight points in the third set helped the Seawolves close the match. Four of those points came off of Morgan State attack errors.
The Seawolves are off until Tuesday, Sept. 25. They will host LIU-Brooklyn in the home opener at Pritchard Gymnasium. Game time is 7 p.m.
