The Stony Brook women’s volleyball team’s NCAA tournament hopes ended on Friday when the Seawolves fell to top-seeded New Hampshire (23-25, 25-13, 25-11, 25-20).
Junior Melissa Rigo had a match-high 15 kills and 10 digs in the semifinal loss.
New Hampshire ended up winning the America East championship Saturday by defeating Albany in four sets.
Junior Nicole Vogel had 29 assists and 16 digs to lead the team and redshirt junior Kathy Fletcher added 12 kills and 10 digs.
With the Wildcats up 22-16 late in the first stanza, the Seawolves came back and won by scoring nine of the last 10 points.
The Seawolves cut the deficit to four, but New Hampshire answered back to go up 23-18.
Stony Brook had kills by Rigo, Fletcher and Evann Slaughter that brought the Seawolves within two, 23-21.
Stephanie McFadden tied the game with an ace, which led to a Wildcat timeout, but that could not stop the Seawolves.
Fletcher and Rigo had back-to-back smacks to give the No. 4 Seawolves the first set.
New Hampshire only committed one error in the next two sets to take a 2-1 lead in the
semifinal match.
The Wildcats took control of the fourth set, but Stony Brook would not go down.
Stony Brook then went on an 8-2 run to pull within one, 18-17.
New Hampshire scored five of the next six points to take the final set and match.
Redshirt junior Lo Hathaway tallied 14 digs in the loss. Slaughter, Vogel and McFadden had two blocks apiece for the Seawolves.
The Wildcats led in blocks 12-5 and hit .333 in the final three sets.
Despite the loss, Slaughter was placed on the All-Championship team.
Rigo and Vogel shared the team lead in double-doubles with 12.
With the loss Stony Brook is now 4-9 in America East Championship play and the Wildcats evened the all-time series at 17 apiece.
Even with the loss, Stony Brook will still finish its season with a winning overall record. It currently stands at 17-14.
The Seawolves also are 7-5 in conference play and a very impressive 10-2 at home.
Stony Brook will end its season Tuesday with a game at Yale at 5 p.m.
Mike Daniello
Mike is a senior at Stony Brook University, majoring in journalism. He is currently a managing editor after spending the last two years as sports editor. He joined the paper during the fall of his freshman year and spent his sophomore year as an assistant sports editor. He also interned with News12 Long Island in the sports department, where he covered all sports from high school to professional. He got the opportunity to interview the Boston Bruins as an intern. Mike went to Omaha, Nebraska to report on the Stony Brook baseball team after it famously reached the College World Series. He has written about all sports, but enjoys baseball the most. When he’s not doing something sports related, he is working at CVS, where he is a shift supervisor and the store mentor. After college, he hopes to be a baseball writer.
