Stony Brook’s Women’s Volleyball team improved to 15-14 with their impressive win over UMass. They are now 8-3 in their conference and have a chance to clinch a berth in the American East Championship on Sunday, when they play New Hampshire. The Seawolves are 8-1 against UMass all-time and now have their best in conference record through 11 games since 2007.

The Seawolves started and ended the match strong. In the first set, they led 12-5 with kills by junior Taylor Gillie and senior Kaitlin Costello. UMass was able to respond with a kill after a timeout but a kill by Costello sealed the set for the Seawolves 25-15.

The second set was much less lopsided. Trailing 22-19, UMass called a timeout to gather themselves after Gillie was able to get another kill. The set would end by both teams trading service errors and thus giving the Seawolves a 2-0 lead in the match.

Going in to what would be the last set, the third set started 6-6 before sophomore Melissa Rigo broke the tie by recording two back-to-back kills. After a period of errors and blocks, the Seawolves took a 12-7 lead. They would go on to win the set (26-16) and match (3-0) on a kill by junior Hannah Dolan.

Head Coach Coley Pawlikowski was pleased by her teams performance, stating, “We did a great job as a team tonight.” She also gave a lot of credit to UMass as well, saying, “UMass Lowell is a team with a ton of heart and fight!”

Although UMass out blocked Stony Brook, 6-4, they were held to .147 hitting while the Stony Brook hit .315 and led in aces 4-1. Costello tallied six kills and five digs, and team captain Lo Hathaway recorded a match high 11 digs. Rigo and Gillie both recorded seven kills and Dolan had a match high 31 helpers.

With three games remaining on their schedule, the Seawolves can clinch a berth into the American East Championship with just one more win. They can do just that on Sunday with a victory over New Hampshire.