LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Stony Brook volleyball team began their 2023 campaign on Friday afternoon with a victory against Bucknell and a defeat vs Gardner-Webb in the first day of the Liberty Tournament.
The Seawolves first defeated the Bison in straight-sets and then fell to Gardner-Webb University, 3-0, to cap off their two-match day.
Stony Brook began the day with a dominating 3-0 victory over Patriot League member Bucknell. The Seawolves wasted no time as the senior duo of Leoni Kunz and Abby Campbell captured four kills each to lead Stony Brook to an opening 25-20 victory in the first set.
In the second set, the offense started to heat up after seven different Seawolves recorded a kill and the team had a kill-percentage of .467 that allowed them to cruise to the 25-18 second-set victory. During the first two sets, the Seawolves only trailed for eight total points.
After falling behind 13-11 in the third-set, the Seawolves stormed back by scoring eight of the next 10 points to take the 19-15 advantage. Leading the charge was freshman Ava Jackson and Campbell combining for five kills and a block. Stony Brook scored the final four points of the match to secure the set 25-19 and the straight-set victory.
The Seawolves were unable to keep their success in the second game of the day after falling to the Bulldogs 3-0. Stony Brook battled tough in the first set by pushing the match to 23-23 after Jackson tied the game by earning a kill and service ace. However, the Bulldogs went on to score the next two points to secure the set and ultimately the match, 3-0.
MATCH 1: STONY BROOK – 3, BUCKNELL – 0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-19)
- It marked the 11th time in history that the teams went head-to-head and the first time since September 6, 2014. The Seawolves improved to 11-0 all-time against the Bison, including straight-set victories in five of their last seven meetings.
- Senior middle blocker Abby Campbell recorded a team-high 12 kills on .750 hitting. It was her 27th career game with 10 or more kills. She also had three blocks and two service aces in the victory.
- Senior outside hitter Leoni Kunz registered 10 kills as she hit .421 in the win.
- Reigning CAA Rookie of the Year Kali Moore tallied nine kills and eight digs.
- Freshman Ava Jackson made her Stony Brook debut and led all freshmen with 8 kills.
- Senior setter Torri Henry recorded 36 assists in the victory, the most of any player on either team. It was the most assists for any Stony Brook player since Henry tallied 36 at Northeastern on October 22, 2022.
- Senior Julia Patsos and freshman Madison Cigna led the back row by tallying 14 and 11 digs, respectively.
MATCH 2: STONY BROOK – , GARDNER-WEBB – 3 (23-25, 15-25, 19-25,)
- Kunz led the way with 9 kills in the match. The senior also tallied two digs and a block in the defeat.
- Jackson followed up with her eight kills in the first match with six kills against the Bulldogs. Jackson had a career-best two service aces as well.
- After tallying 36 assists in the first game, Henry dished out 25 assists against Gardner-Webb. She also had three digs and two service aces.
- Woodruff and Schmitz both tallied three kills, while Hickey, Campbell, Standwood, and Moore had two kills each.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Earning a win against Bucknell was a composed group and I'm proud of our ability to stay clean in the serve and pass game and disciplined defensively to get it. The quick turnaround against Gardner Webb was tough emotionally and physically and while I can acknowledge that circumstance we had more to give and we have to find ways to earn more points, even if it's not clean and pretty volleyball. We have a high level Liberty team tomorrow to close out the weekend and I'm excited to see our ability to bounce back," said head coach Kristin Belzung.
NEXT UP
The Seawolves are right back in action tomorrow as they finish off the Liberty Tournament against the host Liberty University at 3:00 pm. This will be the first ever meeting between these two programs.
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