In a back and forth game, it was Old Westbury who prevailed, edging out St. Joseph's3-2 in a Skyline match-up this evening at the Clark Athletic Center. Old Westbury improves to 14-6 overall and 4-1 in the league.
With the first game tied at 20, the Panthers used a 5-0 run behind the serve of Jessica Ratchford to take a 25-20 cushion. An Old Westbury setting error on the next play pulled St. Joseph's to within four, but Monique Midy's kill on the next play kicked off five-straight Panther points which gave Old Westbury the 30-21 win.
Game two was tightly contested throughout, with neither team gaining more than a three-point advantage. Tied at 24, Whitney Alexander put home a kill for the Panthers, the first of three unanswered points that left the Panthers ahead by three. Jennifer DeStephano ended the run with a kill for St. Joseph's and Kasey Wood followed in suit and an attack error by Old Westbury tied the game at 27. Two plays later, with the game tied at 28, Old Westbury hit back-to-back errors, giving the Golden Eagles the 30-28 win.
Once again in game three the two teams battled back and forth. With Katie Johnson serving for the Golden Eagles, St. Joseph's scored five-straight points and took a 23-17 lead. The Panthers chipped away and finally managed to tie the game at 29 when Jennifer Ragone set Midy for another kill. The teams were knotted once again at 30, when Ragone set Midy and Jennifer Hoyt for back-to-back kills and the 32-30 win.
St. Joseph's led by as many as six in game four, and eventually tied the match at two-all when Lisa Giordano served up an ace on game-point for the 30-24 final which forced the decisive fifth game.
DeStephano's kill in game five put St. Joseph's ahead 8-7, but a ball handling error on the next play gave the serve back to the Panthers at 8-8. With Nihal Boz serving, Ratchford put two kills down for the two-point edge. St. Joseph's came back to tie it up once again (11-all), but Hoyt provided the bookends for four-straight Panther points and led Old Westbury to the 15-11 win.
Midy finished with a match-high 17 kills, while Hoyt finished with 15 kills and added four solo blocks and four assisted blocks on the defensive end. Ragone tallied 46 assists and libero Stacey Dubin registered 51 digs in the win.
Elyse Quirk led St. Joseph's with 14 kills, while Meaghan Disken tallied 35 digs and setter Christina Auth had 43 assists.
Old Westbury returns to action on Saturday with a tri-match at home.