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Hempstead, N.Y. – Coming off a successful 2-1 weekend at the DePaul Invite, the Stony Brook volleyball team will renew its rivalry with Hofstra Wednesday night in Hempstead, N.Y. Opening serve is slated for 7 p.m. at the Mack Physical Education Center.

Last Time Out

Stony Brook (2-1) finished second at the DePaul Invite with wins over DePaul, 3-1, and Bradley, 3-2, and a 3-0 loss to Hampton. Playing in front of a hometown crowd, redshirt junior and West Chicago, Ill., native Kathy Fletcher tied for the team lead in kills at 2.75 per set and was second in digs at 1.92 per set. For her efforts, she picked up All-Tournament honors. Junior outside hitter Melissa Rigo tied Fletcher with a team-best 2.75 kills per set average. Junior libero Lo Hathaway anchored the defense with 2.25 digs per set. Freshman defensive specialist Dani Nizich played consistently well in the first opening weekend of her collegiate career, starting 11 of 12 sets and averaging 1.33 digs per stanza.

Series History

Hofstra owns a 3-1 lead in the all-time series between the two teams and won the most recent meeting, 3-2, in 2009. The Seawolves swept Hofstra in 1999.

Scouting the Pride

Hofstra went 3-1 with wins over St. Francis-Brooklyn, Lafayette and Quinnipiac at the Hofstra Asics Invitational last weekend. The Pride dropped its final match of the weekend, 3-1, to Santa Clara University. Senior outside hitter Kelsie Wills led Hofstra with 4.33 kills per set and was second with 2.20 digs per set.

Perfect 10

Redshirt senior middle blocker Evann Slaughter performed well in her return to the court after missing the 2013 season with a torn ACL. She reached double figures in kills against DePaul (11) and Bradley (10) and averaged 2.08 kills per frame on the weekend. Slaughter, who has led Stony Brook in blocks in all three of her seasons, currently sits fifth in school history with 205 career block assists and eighth with 281 total stuffs. She needs three blocks to tie Katie McCabe (1997-00) for seventh in program history in career blocks.

Get Lo

Lo Hathaway broke the single-season school digs record last season with 553 digs and finished fifth in single-season program history in digs per set at 4.29. She had a match-high 16 scoops in Stony Brook’s win over DePaul Friday.

Fresh Faces

Stony Brook welcomes six promising freshmen to the fold as the program continues to grow under Coley Pawlikowski. Click on the bio links below for more on the newest Seawolves.

Melann Amory (Fr., OH/DS, 5-10)...................Center Valley, Pa./Southern Lehigh

Cydney Bowman (Fr., MB/OH, 5-11)………..Lake Mary, Fla./Lake Mary

Emily Costello (Fr./OH/6-2)……………………Webster, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy

Abby Hickey (Fr., DS/OH, 5-6)…………………Dekalb, Ill./Dekalb

Dani Nizich (Fr., DS/S, 5-4)……………………..Nesconset, N.Y./Smithtown East

Courtney Scanlan (Fr., MB/OH, 6-1)………...Salamanca, N.Y./Ellicotville

 

Fearless Leader

A rising star in the collegiate volleyball coaching ranks and a tenacious recruiter of student-athletes, Pawlikowski is a three-time recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Thirty Under 30 award. She was hired on January 16, 2013.

In her first year at the helm, Pawlikowski guided to Seawolves back to the America East Championship and mentored a pair of all-conference picks in Kaitlin Costello (first team) and Stephanie McFadden (second team). Stony Brook consistently ranked near the top of the country in aces per set, finishing the year 10th at 1.69. The Seawolves are also excelling off the court under her watch and were honored with their first AVCA Team Academic Award.

A tenacious recruiter, Pawlikowski added six promising Seawolves to the roster in her first full recruiting class as she looks to build a championship program. She served as the defensive position coach at Wisconsin, helping the Badgers lead the Big Ten in digs per set as a team and boast the individual digs champion. 

Pawlikowski previously worked as the top assistant coach for her alma mater, Northern Illinois, from 2009-12, where she helped guide the Huskies to a 2011 Mid-American Conference regular season title and an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Up Next

The Seawolves will travel to New York City Friday and Saturday for the Columbia Invitational. Stony Brook plays Fairfield Friday at 5 p.m. and Columbia and Bucknell Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively.