After a convincing win over Fordham last Tuesday, the Stony Brook women’s volleyball team had a rough weekend in Arkansas. The Seawolves dropped all three of their matchups in the Razorback Invitational, dropping contests to SMU, Arkansas and South Dakota.
On Friday against SMU, the Seawolves fell in three straight sets by the scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-22. Junior Melissa Rigo played well in the loss, finishing with eight kills and 12 digs. Redshirt seniors Evann Slaughter and Stephanie McFadden also added seven kills apiece in the effort.
The combination of Caroline Young and Cailin Bula proved to be too much for SBU to handle. Young had a match high 12 kills and Bula was right behind her with 11 kills.
In the Seawolves’ first matchup on Saturday against Arkansas, they were once against swept in three straight sets. The Seawolves fell by the scores of 26-24, 25-18 and 25-15. Rigo was once again a bright spot in the loss, as she finished with 12 kills.
Meredith Hays led Arkansas with 12 kills of her own and Bailee Hankenson had a match high 29 assists.
On Saturday night, the Seawolves suffered a tough loss to South Dakota 3-1. SBU again lost its opening set by the score of 25-15. Then Stony Brook responded with a 26-24 win in the second set to tie the match up at 1-1. But the Seawolves would fall in the next two sets by the scores of 25-23 and 25-22.
Three different SBU players reached double-digit kills against South Dakota. Slaughter led the team with 13 kills and Rigo and senior Taylor Gillie each had 10 kills apiece. Junior Nicole Vogel also put together a strong effort in the invite finale, delivering 38 assists.
But the best player on the court in the match was South Dakota’s Kendall Kritenbrink, who finished with 24 kills. South Dakota also got 41 assists from Brittany Jessen in their victory. Stony Brook now has an overall record of 4-7 this season.
This weekend the Seawolves will particpate in another invitational, and will be the tournment’s host.
On Friday night at 7 p.m. the team will match up against Kennesaw State. Then on Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m., Stony Brook will play against Western Michigan. Later that day, SBU will have a 6 p.m. matchup with St. Francis.
Stony Brook currently sits in fourth place in the America East Conference standings. On Friday, Sept. 26, the Seawolves will play against their first conference opponent of the season when they head to Connecticut to take on Hartford. The team will play a total of 12 conference matchups during the 2014-15 season.
