The Stony Brook (SB) women’s volleyball team celebrated Senior Day with its ninth straight victory.
Senior Jackie Ahlers gathered an overall match-high of 19 kills and senior Morgan Sweany added 17 over New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 4. SB went 3-1 for the game with individual match scores of 30-27, 30-25, 24-30, and 30-24.
Ahlers hit .441 for the Seawolves, who also got a double-double from senior Kaityln Deutsch (44 assists, 10 digs) and a match-high of 20 digs from junior Noelle Bay.
The opening match was close all the way with the Seawolves taking their biggest lead of the game at 19-15 on a kill from Sweany. The Wildcats wouldn’t back down as they closed the score to within two points numerous times. But with the score set at 29-27, the Seawolves finished up the game quickly on a kill from Sweany.
The Seawolves dominated in Game Two most of the way, while they pushed out a 16-10 lead. The Wildcats continued to hang close as they closed the score to within 4 points at 27-23, but a New Hampshire attack error made the lead five and the Seawolves closed it out a few points later easily with a meticulous block from junior Jessica Graham and sophomore Linda Weber.
The Seawolves hit a match-high of .500 for the match. The Wildcats led most of the way for Game Three and gathered a win for themselves to bring the total to 2-1.
The fourth game was close most of the time because neither team could catch hold of a lead of more than three points until the Seawolves got a kill from Sweany and brought the score up to 19-15. The Wildcats scored four of the next five points to close within one point and force a Stony Brook timeout. The Seawolves got an exceptional kill from Sweany kill out of the timeout and then with the score 21-20, Stony Brook scored six of the next seven points to take a 27-21 lead and it would not renounce. This closed out their ninth straight victory this season on a New Hampshire set error.
Also keeping up with the winning streak, for the third straight week, senior outside hitter, Jackie Ahlers was named the America East Volleyball Player of the Week for her efforts in leading the Seawolves’ to the number one spot in the conference championship.
Ahlers led the conference last week in kills with 5.75 per game, an excellent hitting percentage of .527 and points at 6.38 per game. Her play led Stony Brook to a pair of 3-1 wins over America East opponents Maine and New Hampshire and the number one niche in the conference championship.
Against Maine on Friday night, Ahlers had 27 kills with a .600 hitting percentage. She came back with 19 kills and a .441 hitting percentage in the Seawolves’ 3-1 victory over New Hampshire on Senior Day on Sunday. This senior maintained the weekly award for the third straight week and the fifth time this season.
SBU move up to 21-7 overall and 9-1 in the America East while the Wildcats descend to 18-8 and 7-4. The Seawolves return to action on Thursday, Nov. 8, traveling to take on Binghamton at 7 p.m.
