HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The Stony Brook volleyball team made it back-to-back wins in its first two matches at the Colgate Invitational Friday night. The Seawolves started the day with a 3-1 win over La Salle, coming back to take three straight sets after dropping the first. The team returned to the court in the evening to face the host team and was able to knock off the Raiders in another 3-1 victory. Stony Brook moves to 7-6 on the season after the wins. 

Belzung's Reaction
"Today was a defensive battle of will for our group," said head coach Kristin Belzung. "We put a ton of emphasis on trusting in the system, and the team fought hard to pull out two gritty wins. I was am proud of this team for competing hard in a situation where we weren't in a great offensive rhythm."

Stony Brook 3, La Salle 1
- Play began close to start the match as the two teams traded leads throughout the set. Stony Brook kept the advantage to start, but the Explorers were able to break a 13-all tie and never trailed again, taking the 25-21 victory. 
- Tight play continued in the second set, but four straight points from the Seawolves put them up 14-13 and forced a La Salle timeout. Even with four more ties in the set, Stony Brook did not surrender the lead. Junior McKyla Brooks (Blasdell, N.Y.) helped the Seawolves make the most of an attacking error by the Explorers as she threw down the kill to secure the win, 25-23. 
- Stony Brook jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the third set, stringing together three straight blocks to help keep the distance. The Seawolves remained in control the rest of the way, easing to a 25-13 win.
- A quick five-point run midway through the fourth set allowed Stony Brook to take control in the potentially deciding set. The Seawolves allowed La Salle to string together four straight points of its own with the match on the line, but a kill from sophomore Liz Pulver (Temecula, Calif.) sealed the victory for Stony Brook.
-- Brooks helped lead three players with double digit kills (10) while hitting at a .667 clip.
-- Senior Cydney Bowman (Lake Mary, Fla.) was in on nine of the Seawolves' 11 blocks in the match, a season best for the team. 

Stony Brook 3, Colgate 1
- The Seawolves took the lead early on, but the Raiders were able to get back within a point, 11-10. The attack continued to push for Stony Brook as kills from sophomore Maria Poole (Stavanger, Norway) and redshirt junior Emily Costello (Webster, N.Y.) helped put the Seawolves back up by four. Colgate hung around and cut the deficit to two points late, but Stony Brook closed out for the 25-22 opening-set win. 
- The Raiders took the momentum right away in the second set, going up 7-2 to start. The Seawolves used both timeouts early in the set, but Colgate continued to answer everything they did. Stony Brook rallied for an 8-2 scoring run to make it 22-15 in Colgate's favor, but the spree wasn't enough as the Raiders closed it out, 25-16. 
- Back-and-forth play started the third set and the Seawolves were eventually able to get out in front and force a Colgate timeout as they went up 15-11. Stony Brook remained with the lead the rest of the way to claim the third set, 25-21. 
- Close play was again the theme in set four, though the Seawolves held the lead nearly the entire set. A steady push on the offensive end allowed Colgate to tie things up at 20-all, but Stony Brook was able to score five of the next six points to take the 25-21 win and close out the match. 
-- Costello again led the offense, this time with 16 kills. She has notched double-digit kills in six of the last seven matches. 
-- Sophomore LeAnne Sakowicz (Wauconda, Ill.) made it back-to-back matches with 41 assists. 

Up Next
The Seawolves will look to close out their final non-conference tournament strong with a 2 p.m. match against Cornell on Saturday, Sept. 16.