West Hartford, CT - The Hartford volleyball team dropped a three-game decision to visiting Stony Brook (30-28, 30-25, 30-22) on Friday night at the Sports Center. Hartford was led by senior Jennifer Monroy who finished with 15 kills. Hartford falls to 7-17 overall and 0-6 in conference play.
Maddison Molyneux and Katie O'Hara finished second for the Hawks with nine kills each. Molyneux led the team with a .500 attack percentage with two errors in 14 total attacks. O'Hara finished with a .269 hitting percentage with two kills in 26 total attacks. The Hawks hit .153 as a team with 41 total kills, 22 errors in 124 total attacks.
Sarah Rasor took on setting responsibilities and led the team with 37 of the Hawks 39 assists in the game. Defensively the Hawks were led by Sarah Boss who finished with 10 digs. Hallie Fullagar and Monroy each added nine digs for the home team. Stony Brook was led by Jackie Ahlers and Morgan Sweany who finished with 15 and 14 kills respectively.
The Hawks held a two-point advantage for much of the early going in the first game, with the Seawolves (17-7, 5-1 AE) tying the score for the first time 10 and then taking the lead on the next point off a Linda Weber kill. The Seawolves largest lead of the game came at 19-14. Hartford battled pull within one in the final moments, but a Weber kill would seal the game in Stony Brook's favor. Monroy led all players in the first game with nine kills.
The second game would see a total of 12 tie scores and seven lead changes before all was done. The Seawolves took an early lead but the Hawks would switch things up for their first lead at 7-6 on two Stony Brook errors and a kill from Molyneux. The team would tie the score 10 more times before the Seawolves took a slight two-point advantage at 22-20, a lead they would never relinquish. Kaitlyn Deutsch provided the kill to end things in the second game.
Stony Brook pulled ahead in the third game in the early going 6-2 on back-to-back kills from Ahlers. Hartford then scored five-straight points on three Seawolve errors and a Molyneux kill before Stony Brook pulled ahead for good with four-straight points to go ahead 15-12. Hartford made a run for it in the end but Ahlers sealed the match victory with a kill off an assist from Deutsch.
The Hawks will now travel to Stony Brook on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. to complete the home and home conference series with the Seawolves.
