BRONXVILLE, N.Y. - The Sarah Lawrence College women's volleyball team saw its postseason hopes come to an end after a hard-fought loss to Old Westbury 3-0 in the Skyline Conference regular-season finale before finishing the season with a 3-1 victory over Lehman College.
After the win over Lehman College, SLC finished its season with a 13-16 overall record and a 5-6 mark in the Skyline Conference. The loss to Old Westbury was critical as both the Gryphons and Panthers were 5-5 in conference play and the losing side was to be eliminated from postseason contention.
Match 1 – Old Westbury (L – 25-21, 31-29, 25-18)
In the most critical match of the day, SLC fought tooth and nail alongside the host Old Westbury Panthers, as a 47-18 kills disadvantage was just too much to overcome.
Athena Kazos and
Skyler Kawecki-Muonio shared the team lead in kills with just five each.
Kawecki-Muonio did have a very good match on the defensive side of the statistical categories with 14 digs.
Kaille Ferguson led the team with 15 digs and served up three aces.
Mia Rector led the way in assists (16) and service aces (four).
The one category that the Gryphons were able to manifest the most points out of was their service game, as they tallied a total of 11 aces during the morning contest.
SLC saw itself get down early in the first set before clawing back to tie the match at 21-21 before the Panthers reeled off the final four points of the set.
Down by a score of 20-14 in the second stanza, SLC went on an 8-2 run to tie it at 22-22 thanks to some stellar positioning of the ball forcing the Panthers to commit numerous attack and setting errors.
SLC staved off one set point before earning their first set point at 26-25 before a 3-1 Old Westbury run gave the Panthers set point again.
The duo of Kazos and Kawecki-Muonio got their team back into things with a pair of kills to put the Gryphons up 29-28, but the Panthers reeled off three consecutive points for the 31-29 set victory.
The third set was a see-saw affair as well as both teams would take mini runs without ever fully taking control of the match until Old Westbury took a 20-17 lead which turned it into a 25-18 set victory.
The win propelled Old Westbury into fifth in the Skyline standings while the Gryphons fell to seventh, ending the chance of a postseason appearance as only the top six schools advance to the postseason event next weekend.
Match 2 – Lehman (W – 25-19, 25-13, 24-26, 25-22)
The Gryphons ended their season on a high-note thanks to an incredibly strong service game which forced Lehman College to give up an astounding 26 service aces to SLC.
Kazos, Rector and
Raegan Lacombe combined for 22 of the 26 aces, including eight each by Lacombe and Kazos with Rector adding six.
Rector had a fantastic match overall with 22 assists, the previously mentioned six aces, three blocks and four digs.
Ferguson was one dig shy of completing a kill-dig double-double as she was tops on the team in kills with 12 while scooping up nine digs to go along with a single service ace.
Lehman had a lot of spark to its game and refused to let the Gryphons take control of the first set until a 7-1 run by SLC turned an 18-18 tie into a 25-19 set victory.
The 7-1 run was started by a Lehman attack error followed by a kill bfrom Ferguson which put SLC up 20-18 before a Lightning kill made it 20-19.
A Kawecki-Muonio kill followed by, what head coach Sovanny Ebbeson had to consider a thing of beauty, an impressive streak where Lacombe served out the set on back-to-back-to-back-to-back service aces.
Eight aces aided the Gryphons in an easy second set victory thanks to a 17-5 run after being tied at 8-8.
The third set saw Lehman fight its way back from a 20-11 deficit to take the set 26-24, holding SLC to just a single kill in the stanza.
The Gryphons would then close out the final set of the season very similarly to the rest of the season, in a tightly contest set that could have gone either way. On senior day, the team found a way to take the victory as big blasts from Ferguson and Kazos muffled the Lightning 25-22 in the third.
SLC returns the bulk of its talent for next season so look for the Gryphons to be putting lots of time in during the offseason so they can get themselves back into the upper echelon of the Skyline Conference next season and to possibly make some noise in the postseason.
