STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Stony Brook volleyball team dives head-first into America East play this Friday, traveling across the sound to face Hartford for its conference opener.

Friday's match against the Hawks kick-starts the Seawolves' search for its third-straight conference championship, a streak of success that began two years ago following the hiring of head coach Kristin Belzung and assistant coaches Marc Neef and Sarah Bullock.

Prior to the arrival of Belzung and staff, the program was coming off of an 8-21 overall record and a 4-8 mark in conference play in 2016. In Belzung's first year at the helm, the team went 18-13 with a 6-6 mark in the America East to earn the No. 4 seed in the tournament. From there, Stony Brook made a statement, sweeping top-seeded UAlbany in the semifinals and followed that up with another straight-sweep of Binghamton for the program's first-ever championship.

In 2018, the team went on a tear, rolling to a 12-0 conference record enroute to its second-straight title, this time hoisting the trophy on its home court inside of a packed Pritchard Gym.

"We walked in here as a coaching staff knowing that this is a place where we could have success and we tried to lay out a plan to earn that success," said Belzung. "Fortunately we had a group that bought in and kind of worked the process knowing that (the championship) at the end of the year was the goal. Last year, wanting the opportunity to win the championship in Pritchard in front of our home crowd was a big deal… and fortunately we were able to do so." 

For the players, the America East Championships—and the subsequent NCAA Tournament berths—were experiences like no other and a goal they have embedded in their mindset for 2019.

"The last two years have been super great. I just knew as a freshman I had to come in and work hard, do everything I could to get a spot on the court," said junior libero Kiani Kerstetter. "All I wanted to do was win that championship especially since Stony Brook had never won a championship before. Being able to do that was amazing ... and I really hope that we're able to do that again and get a third ring—and a three-peat—for my junior year."

This year, the team will face a big test off the bat in achieving the desired three-peat when they play against Hartford, who returns the 2018 America East Player of the Year. 

"From a numbers perspective, we haven't seen a team that's this efficient offensively," said Belzung. "That's going to be a really good challenge for our defense this weekend, but it's also a challenge for our offense to be able to convert some of our digs into scoring opportunities and prevent them from being as efficient as they want to be."

Although Hartford will be a stout opponent to start with, Stony Brook has done everything in its power to put itself in the best position to win the conference. The Seawolves' preseason schedule featured matchups against ranked Washington State and Florida State squads as well as numerous teams considered to be one of the top in their respective conferences.

We knew that it was going to be super hard after seeing who we were going to play and where," Kerstetter said. "Like I said, it exposed a lot of our strengths and weaknesses so we've been working on that and going into conference it's a clean slate. Everybody's 0-0 so we just have to start really strong and tomorrow we're going to go into Hartford with that winning mindset, come out with a win, and set the tone for the rest of the season."