No. 3 Campbell and No. 5 Stony Brook Advance to CAA Volleyball Semifinals
Hunter Peters
TOWSON, Md. (Nov. 16, 2023) – Third-seeded Campbell and fifth-seeded Stony Brook advanced to the CAA Volleyball Championship semifinals following first-round sweeps on Thursday at TU Arena on the campus of Towson University.
No. 5 Stony Brook 3, No. 4 Charleston 0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-15) | BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
Fifth-seeded Stony Brook hit .320 as a team to defeat fourth-seeded Charleston in straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-15) in the First Round of the CAA Volleyball Championship Thursday afternoon at TU Arena on the campus of Towson University.
The Seawolves improve to 17-13 this season after earning their first CAA Tournament victory in program history and advance to face top-seeded Towson in the semifinals tomorrow at 4 p.m. Charleston concludes its season 14-16 after the setback.
Kali Moore and Leoni Kunz combined for 30 of Stony Brook’s 53 kills, while Torri Henry racked up 42 assists to pace a red-hot Seawolf attack. Moore recorded a match-high 16 kills on a .316 hitting percentage, with Kunz adding 14 kills and swinging .367.
Stony Brook hit .395 in the first set, recording 19 kills and just four attacking errors en route to a 25-17 set victory. Neither team recorded more than back-to-back points until a 4-0 run from Stony Brook gave the Seawolves an 11-7 advantage. Consecutive kills from Moore forced a Charleston timeout, but Stony Brook extended the run out of the break, pushing the lead to 13-7. A 5-0 run later in the frame gave Stony Brook its largest lead at 21-10 before a kill from Henry clinched set point for the Seawolves.
The second set played similarly to the first. Tied at 9-9, Stony Brook went on a 5-0 spurt to create separation; however, the Cougars responded with four straight points, cutting the deficit to 14-13. The Seawolves took six of the next seven points, and back-to-back kills from Ava Jackson gave Stony Brook a 21-15 lead. Despite a late run from the Cougars, the margin proved enough as Jackson put down set point to give Stony Brook a 25-22 set win.
The third verse was the same as the first two. The teams battled to a 10-10 tie before the Seawolves went on a 7-1 run. Moore capped the spurt with three straight kills to give the Seawolves a 17-11 advantage. Stony Brook ended the match on a 6-1 run, earning a 25-15 set victory to put an exclamation point on its straight-set win.
The Seawolves limited Charleston to a .139 hitting percentage, edging the Cougars 53-29 in kills and 49-27 in assists.
Lexi Wierzbicki paced Charleston with eight kills and added 10 digs, while Tynley Smeltzer had a team-high 16 digs, ending the year with double-digit digs in 19 straight matches. In addition, Smeltzer surpassed 1,000 career digs in the effort.
No. 3 Campbell 3, No. 6 Northeastern 0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-19) | BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
Third-seeded Campbell looked right at home in its CAA Volleyball Tournament debut, earning a straight-set victory (25-15, 25-13, 25-19) over sixth-seeded Northeastern in the first round Thursday evening at TU Arena on the campus of Towson University.
The Camels move to 17-12 this fall and advance to face third-seeded Delaware in the semifinals tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. In addition, it marks the first CAA Tournament victory for Campbell in program history. Northeastern finished 11-14 this season after the defeat.
Chloe Cook paced the Campbell attack, recording a match-high 14 kills on a .480 hitting percentage while adding nine digs. It marks six consecutive matches with double-digit kills for Cook. In addition, the CAA leader in digs was stout on the backline as Claranne Fechter tallied a double-double with a match-high 18 digs and 10 assists, which matches her career-high.
The lights were not too bright for the newcomers as Campbell scored the first three points and never looked back. The Camels extended its lead to as many as 12 at 22-10 before winning the frame 25-15. The block was big-time for Campbell, recording six in the first set, which helped the Camels limit Northeastern to a -0.222 hitting percentage out of the gate. Aley Clent and Melody Paige each had three rejections for the Camels in the first frame.
Northeastern battled to a 4-3 lead in the second set, but Campbell seized momentum with a 7-0 run capped by a kill from Gwen Wolkow. An 8-0 run later in the frame gave the Camels a 24-10 advantage, and they went on to win the set 25-13. Cook tallied six kills and two service aces, leading Campbell to the brink of victory.
With their backs against the wall, Northeastern came out swinging in the third set and opened an 8-1 lead. It was a set of runs, as Campbell responded with an 11-2 spurt, flipping the score in favor of the Camel 12-10. The Huskies answered with seven consecutive points to regain the lead at 17-12. However, Campbell had the final blow, rallying off 13 of the final 15 points, including a 9-0 run, winning to set 25-19 and the match.
Campbell hit .238 for the match while holding Northeastern to a -0.054 hitting percentage. The Camels were impressive across the board, maintaining advantages in kills (44-17), assists (43-15), digs (49-32) and blocks (10-6).
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