Sept. 21, 2011

Final Stats

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Senior Alicia Nelson (Apple Valley, Minn.) tallied a season-high 25 kills and sophomore Evann Slaughter (Clinton, Md.) added a career-best 22 kills as the Stony Brook volleyball team edged the Fordham Rams 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 27-25, 27-19, 15-10) on Wednesday night at Pritchard Gymnasium. Nelson was honored prior to the match after recording her 1,000th career kill on Saturday at Bucknell.

Nelson added 13 digs for the Seawolves, who won their third straight five-set match. Slaughter hit .439 for the match and finished with 23.5 points. Senior Kelsey Sullivan (Hamilton, Va.) had 49 assists and eight digs while freshman Taylor Gillie (Fort Wayne, Ind.) chipped in with a season-high nine kills.

After dropping the first set, the Seawolves (6-7) rallied to win the next two sets and then had four match points in the fourth set. But Fordham fought off each of them and sent the match to a fifth set.

The fifth set was close early with neither team leading by more than two until a Nelson kill gave the Seawolves a 12-9 advantage. Nelson closed things out a few points later with her 25th kill of the night.

Stony Brook hit .562 in the fifth set and hit a season-high .269 for the match. Freshman Laura Hathaway (Warsaw, N.Y.) added 13 digs for the Seawolves.

Neither team led by more than three points in the opening set before Fordham broke a 23-all tie with kills from Lisa Hipp and Sara Konkel to take a 1-0 lead. Stony Brook pushed out to a 16-11 lead in the second set and Fordham got no closer than three rest of the way as SBU evened the match at one.

The teams continued the hard fought battle in a third set that featured 11 ties and three lead changes. Stony Brook trailed 23-20 and then faced a set point at 24-23.

But a Slaughter kill tied it at 24 and SBU closed the set out a few points later on a block from Gillie and Sullivan. SBU hit .355 in the third set.

Stony Brook then seemed to have control of the fourth set, taking a 20-15 lead. But Fordham scored eight of the next 11 and fought off the four match points on the way to forcing the decisive fifth set.

The Seawolves have a quick turnaround, opening America East play on Friday at UMBC. First serve is set for 6 p.m.