For the Adelphi University Panthers volleyball team, things started off less than fantastic with the 0-9 start. Eleven games later, the lady Panthers have clawed their way back at the .500 mark with 11-9 as they look to keep their streak alive with seven games left to play. Quite the impressive turnaround for the girls, who previously played in back to back tournaments in Clarion and Texas A&M Kingsville.
After overcoming a sluggish start to the year, the Panthers got hot by winning nine games in a row and just like that, they are back in the race to the finish line in the Northeast 10 Conference! “I think we started off our season kind of slow with a lot of good competition being out of our region” said eighth year Head Coach Danielle MacKnight. “We were able to make some adjustments coming out of preseason once we got back here due to injuries and playing with the lineup a little bit to find something that worked well for us.” So far, that lineup has worked well and it paid dividends for Coach MacKnight.
Dating back to last season, the team finished the year 19-13 overall, where they went 10-4 in NE-10 games. After finishing fourth in the conference, Adelphi bowed out of the second and first rounds of the NE-10 and NCAA tournaments respectively to New Haven.
This year, the team from Garden City, Long Island is 8-0 in conference play and is looking to remain perfect for the rest of the season as six of those remaining seven games are against teams in the NE-10. Four of them are at home, where they are 5-1 and if they can play like they do on the road, where they are 6-2, then they can find themselves back in the NE-10 tournament once again. These games will have huge implications going down the stretch and also play a role in where they will end up in the conference. If they do move on to the NCAA tournament like last year, then those games will be important going forward as well.
“The next couple of weeks are really big for us” explainws MacKnight. “We haven’t played the top of our conference yet besides Saint Rose’s, which we were able to beat. I think we’re able to beat every team we match up against.” To start off at 0-9, the girls are realistically in a must-win situation for the remainder of the year.
Some of the key players who have stepped up and have been killing it during the streak are middle back Kaitlyn Distefano, outside hitters Haley Blunt and Mandy Stanislovatis, and defensive specialist Sierra Crook. “Kaitlyn’s done a great job stepping up, blocking for us and being a leader and putting down balls when we needed her to” said Macknight. “Haley and Mandy have also stepped up on the outside and Sierra has done a great job serving for us and kind of taking care of the back row defensively.”
Distefano was a key cog on last year’s roster and had led the team with 132 blocks, while averaging 1.08 blocks per set and 372 kills with 3.05 kills per set while playing in all 32 games. This year, the Farmingdale native started in 16 of 18 games but continues to put up good numbers. She leads the team with 65 total blocks, with a 1.03 block per set and 166 kills with 2.63 kills per set.
Another catalyst in the lineup from last year’s team is Crook, who had led the team with 471 digs at 3.86 digs per set and had 22 service aces while playing in all 32 contests. The libero continues to dominate in those categories this year. She leads the team with 279 digs at 4.50 digs per set and has 29 serving aces with an ace per set of .47 in 18 matches.
On the outside, Blunt was second with 269 kills, 343 digs and 40 service aces last season. This year, the East Setauket native is ranked third with 156 kills, second with 141 digs and third with 18 serving aces while starting in 16 of 18 games. Stanislovatis played in 30 games last year and posted 129 kills, by averaging 1.7 kills per set. She also recorded 18 services aces, 19 total blocks and had 137 digs as a freshman. This season as a sophomore, she started in 14 of 17 games and is second on the team with 159 kills with an average of 2.65 kills per set. Stanislovatis also racked up 20 serving aces, which is good for second, 20 total blocks, which is tied for second and is third with 107 digs.
With all things to consider, the Panthers are making a push to finish the season strong and get to back to playing in the NE-10 and NCAA tournaments. The team’s next game is scheduled for Friday October 17th at 7pm against Saint Anselm College on Adelphi’s campus in Garden City.
