On Friday night, the Stony Brook women’s volleyball team had dropped the first three points of its match against UMass-Lowell (3-26, 1-11), when a special moment came to fruition for the Seawolves.
Redshirt senior middle blocker Evann Slaughter saw a ball floating in the air, rose up and buried it for the 1,000th kill of her illustrious career.
With the important momentum-shifting hit, Slaughter became the tenth player to reach the 1,000-kill mark in Stony Brook history.
The historic moment came in the Seawolves’ second loss in two days, one at New Hampshire (16-11, 9-1) and the other at UMass-Lowell.
After their five game winning streak was snapped, the Seawolves (17-11, 7-3) now have to go into the America East Championships with losing two games in a row.
The Seawolves started their road trip with a game against New Hampshire, with the regular season conference title on the line for the Wildcats.
If New Hampshire won, they would be America East regular season champions for a second straight year.
In the first set, the Seawolves fell behind 17-9, but they fought back, keeping it close with kills by Kathy Fletcher, Slaughter, and Melissa Rigo. It was not enough, though, as the Seawolves dropped the set by the score of 25-18.
The second set was a back and forth battle, as both teams were evenly matched, including even scores at 10 different occasions during the set. But in the end, the Wildcats proved too strong, taking the set 26-24.
Facing a daunting two set to none margin, the Seawolves looked to come back and spoil New Hampshire’s party.
The Seawolves never led in the set, however. Although the Seawolves had opportunities to jumpstart an upset several times late in the set, they fell short in their effort.
The Seawolves lost the third set 25-20, losing the match. In doing so, they forfeited any chance they had to take the America East’s top seed, giving the Wildcats their second straight regular season title. Slaughter had a good game with 12 kills and Nicole Vogel had another double-double, with 26 assists and 10 digs.
It was her 11th double-double of the season and her fourth straight.
After their loss to the Wildcats, the Seawolves looked to make a statement against the UMass-Lowell River Hawks.
Slaughter’s historic kill spurred a big run, helping the Seawolves to a 8-6 lead.
However, a four-point UMass-Lowell run quickly halted the momentum.
Stony Brook would not lead for the rest of set, losing it by a score of 25-20.
In the second set, the Seawolves led early and held on, winning it 25-17 with great efforts by Fletcher and Stephanie McFadden.
The third set was pure domination by the Seawolves, starting the set with a five-point run.
Stony Brook took the set with another 25-17 win, putting the team on the verge of heading into postseason play with momentum.
When the fourth set started, the Seawolves were looking to put the match away, starting the set with a 7-6 lead.
But, the momentum slowly diminished, eventually turning the lead into a 17-13 deficit.
Even though the Seawolves had managed to tie it all up at 18-18, they lost it 25-23.
With each team taking two sets apiece, the match was going to be decided by an all-important fifth and final set.
Both teams were evenly matched, battling in a neck and neck war until the very end, when UMass-Lowell took the set and the match 16-14, with a two-point run to close it out.
Rigo led the team with 20 kills while Vogel had a fifth straight double-double with 54 assists and 15 digs.
Next up for the Seawolves is the America East Tournament. They will play their semifinal game on Nov. 21 at New Hampshire against the Wildcats.