On Tuesday night, the Stony Brook women’s volleyball team hosted a tough Seton Hall opponent in a non-conference game. The Pirates, who came into Pritchard Gymnasium in first place in the Big East Conference, were able to defeat the Seawolves in three straight sets, winning by the score of 25-11, 25-14 and 25-15.
This game was not pretty for Stony Brook. The first set was marked by attack errors, as Stony Brook committed 11 errors in the opening set. The Seawolves also allowed their opponent to go on several runs of unanswered points during the first set. The Pirates went on a run of six consecutive points as well as a pair of four-point runs.
In the second set, it was the same story, with the Seawolves committing another 11 attack errors. The Seawolves also allowed Seton Hall to go on a devastating seven-point run, which put them into a hole they could not climb out of.
During the match, the Seawolves had only one lead, which was a 7-6 advantage in the third set. That lead did not last long, however, as Danielle Schroeder, the Pirates’ sophomore outside hitter, quickly answered with a kill to tie it up. Schroeder’s kill would spark another run of of seven unanswered points for Seton Hall, and effectively put an end to Stony Brook’s comeback hopes.
In this poor offensive performance, the Seawolves managed to give up 30 errors. Their attack percentage came out to be -1.1 percent. Also, the Pirates blocked the Seawolves 15 times.
While the team as whole did not have the best offensive performance, Melissa Rigo, a junior outside hitter for the Seawolves, had another great game. Rigo had 12 kills and got three digs in as well. Although she had double-digit kills, Rigo also got seven errors throughout match.
Although the match was not a win, Rigo found a silver lining, saying, “overall it didn’t prove on the scoreboard, but tonight was actually one of our better games. We actually fought back, which we haven’t done in a couple weeks.” She also called the game “a step in the right direction.”
Head coach Coley Pawlikowski agreed with Rigo, saying that the team “played better volleyball than we had in the last month.”
When asked about the match, Pawlikowski also said, “as long as we learn from our loss, it was a great match for us tonight.”
While Seton Hall proved to be the better team, Pawlikowski believes that the team still has its confidence, saying, “I think we understand that their volleyball IQ is much higher than ours. We talked about that being an opportunity for us to get better, and I think that our kids embraced that.”
Stony Brook is now 12-11 on the season. The schedule does not get much easier for the Seawolves, with an America East game against Hartford on Friday, Oct. 24 at home. Following that is an away game against Delaware State on Oct. 30.
