Garden City, N.Y. - By way of a three-set victory over top-seeded Adelphi University, the NYIT volleyball program earned a spot in the NCAA East Region Championship, which happens to be the first in Head Coach Gail Wasmus's tenure. The squad improves to 27-7 overall as the hosts conclude their season at 27-5.
Emily Mankowski led all players with 18 kills and Karolina Moderova finished a double double with 13 kills and 16 digs as Allison Fowler paced the offense with 46 assists in the win. The defense was once again anchored by Becky Syers who had 20 digs and two other players reached double digits, as Tina Stefanovic and Portia McIntosh each contributed 10 apiece.
After being locked at 4-4 the Bears scored three straight points courtesy of a aervice ace and back to back kills from Mankowski and Rachel Guida. However, the Panthers came storming back to tie the game at 8-8 on a kill from Mandy Stanislovaitis. NYIT committed an 8-1 run to command a 17-12 advantage in the first set and Mankowski was resonsible for the final three points to close out the win. As a team, NYIT hit for a .343 percentage compared to .188 for the Panthers.
The second set started with the fourth-seed maintaing a 6-1 lead, bookmarked with kills from Kate Brock and Moderova which they held courtesy of a match high 21 kills. The Panthers recorded two consectuvies blocks with assistance from Shelby Stoner to stop Moderova to come within one of NYIT at 21-20, which they managed to tie six times before the Bears evenutally took a 28-26 second set victory with a kill from Guida and big block from the Moderova/Fowler wall.
With determination, the top-seed took a 10-5 lead in the third and led by another five points at 20-15 but NYIT evened the score at 22-22, when Kate Brock and Fowler combined to stop Stanislovaitis. The teams traded points, but the Bears regained the lead courtesy of another defensive mark from Brock and Stefanovic and the squad closed out the set and match on Mankowski's 18th kill of the game.
In the first semifinal matchup of the evening, the University of Bridgeport knocked out Dowling to move on to Saturday's Regional Championship with a 3-0 victory. First serve is slated for 7:00 p.m. between the Purple Knights and the NYIT Bears.
Provided by the NYIT Sports Information Department.
