Old Westbury, NY ? The Old Westbury women?s volleyball team beat Sarah Lawrence in three-straight games (30-9, 30-14, 30-28) this evening at the Clark Athletic Center. The win improves the Panthers overall record to 5-1 and ties the school record for most wins in a season, set last year in Head Coach Marjahna Segers first season.
The Panthers cruised through the first two games, winning 30-9 and 30-14, but struggled early in the third, before edging out the Gryphons 30-28 in a come-from-behind win.
With Old Westbury up two games to one, the third game went back-and-fourth through the early points and found the two teams knotted at eight. With Bryn Pritchard serving for the Gryphons, Sarah Lawrence took its first lead of the match during a rally of 14-straight points and went on to lead the game 17-8 before a service error gave the serve back to the Panthers.
Sarah Lawrence was leading 21-9 when Jessica Ratchford recorded a kill for Old Westbury, and, with Jennifer Hoyt serving for the Panthers, kicked off five points in a row to pull within eight. The Panthers continued to chip away at the lead, as the Gryphons recorded two-straight attacking errors, and closed the gap to one after Jennifer Ragone?s eighth service ace of the match.
Old Westbury continued to close in and tied the match up at 28 after another kill by Ratchford, who finished the match with seven. A Sarah Lawrence attacking error gave the Panthers match point and Jennifer Hoyt and Janera Johnson assisted on a block to end the match.
Hoyt opened each of the first two games with eight-straight points off her serve and, along with Ragone, finished with eight aces for the match. Whitney Alexander, who put game two away with a kill from the center of the court, finished with a match-high 10 kills. Stacey Dubin led the match with 10 digs.
Old Westbury will return to action on Saturday, September 17 at a Skyline Conference Tri-Match, hosted by Maritime. Action begins at 10:00 am.