The Stony Brook Seawolves were able to successfully defeat the Hartford Hawks in four sets (25-16, 26-24, 24-26, 25-21) on Sunday afternoon. It is the Seawolves’ 8th win in their last 10 matches, leaving them on a surging hot streak.
Senior Kaitlin Costello led the way with her third consecutive double-double (10 kills, 14 digs). Melissa Rigo led the team with 12 kills, while Stephanie McFadden and Kathy Fletcher each had 11 kills. Hannah Dolan had 41 assists; her eighth time having 40 or more.
Stony Brook came out of the gate strong, dominating the first game by going on an 11-1 run and leading by as much as 11. They were leading the second game as well before Hartford came back to tie it up at 24-24, but the Seawolves’ prevailed with a kill from Fletcher securing the victory.
Unfortunately, the Seawolves dropped the third game by a score of 26-24, a devastating loss as Stony Brook had the opportunity to secure the match victory during the game.
However, the Seawolves were able to come strong in the fourth game, securing the match by a score of 25-21.
When asked about her team’s performance, coach Coley Pawlikowski responded with, “I think [in] game 1, we were really disciplined; we did a really good job of just controlling our side of the net. When we went away from that in [games] 2 and 3, we struggled a little bit, but we were able to rebound, which was big for us. We did a good job of just understanding what our game plan was, and getting back to basics.” When asked if her team was nervous after dropping the 3rd game, coach Pawlikowski replied, “No, a big thing we stress is confidence. We want our team to play confidently all the time.”
The Seawolves had 6 aces compared to the Hawks’ 3, and 10 blocks compared to Hartford’s 7. The win keeps Stony Brook undefeated at Pritchard this year, at 4-0, which is comforting knowing that there are 5 more home games left to play.
The Seawolves are set to travel to play Seton Hall on the road, but are returning home for a big conference matchup against U of Maryland: Baltimore County on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Pritchard Gymnasium.
