MANCHESTER, N.H. – With 37 assists in the team's regular season finale, junior
Michelle Henwood (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) surpassed the 2,000 career assists mark as Saint Anselm College picked up a 3-1 victory over Adelphi on Saturday.
Henwood becomes the sixth student-athlete in program history to reach the milestone.
Jewel Hays '19 is the most recent student-athlete to surpass 2,000 assists and is the program record holder for career assists with 3,750. Henwood needs 69 assists to pass
Robin Hinchey '03 for fifth on the all-time list.
The Hawks enter the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament with a 17-9 overall record and a 9-4 mark in league matches. The Panthers see their season come to a close at 16-11 overall with a 5-7 record in NE10 play. Saint Anselm will travel to Stonehill on Tuesday, Nov. 16th in the NE10 Quarterfinals with the match beginning at 7 p.m.
Adelphi captured set one with a 25-19 score line before Saint Anselm notched 25-23, 25-23, and 25-14 set wins.
Freshman
Gabby Belcher (Buckeye, Ariz.) fired a match-high 15 kills while juniors
Lois Dogbe (Winchester, Calif.) and
Lauren Casey (Jefferson City, Mo.) recorded 11 kills each. Casey finished the day with a .417 hitting percentage, taking 24 swings and committing just one error.
After the Hawks took a 3-2 lead on a Dogbe kill, the Panthers grabbed eight of the next nine points to take a 10-4 lead. Adelphi would not look back and never let the lead get smaller than three on the way to a 25-19 opening set victory.
Adelphi continued its strong play to open the second frame with a 7-1 lead. Saint Anselm would tie the score at 14 on a service ace by sophomore
Alina Barbarena (Los Angeles, Calif.). The Panthers regained the lead and held a 20-16 edge before Saint Anselm took its first lead of the set on five consecutive points. The teams traded points in the closing of set two but the Hawks took control with the final three points on a pair of Belcher kills and a Henwood service ace.
The Panthers registered eight of nine points to take a 12-7 lead in the third set. However, Saint Anselm battled back by notching seven of the next eight points to take a 14-13 edge. The teams traded points until the Hawks took control of the match with four straight kills by Belcher, Dogbe, and Henwood, which put the team on set point at 24-20. Three consecutive points by Adelphi forced a Hawks timeout which proved to work in their favor as Belcher capped off the set with a kill, giving Saint Anselm a 2-1 lead in the match following a 25-23 set three victory.
Saint Anselm held a 12-6 lead following a six-point Hawks run and the team never looked back. Adelphi cut the lead to two on a
Delaney Kiendra kill but 10 of the next 12 points went Saint Anselm's way as they would go on to close out the match with a fourth set win by a 25-14 score.