WEST HAVEN, Conn. – After fighting back from a 2-1 deficit and being a point away from victory twice, the Bentley University Falcons fell victim to a 4-1 closing burst by Adelphi University to fall in five sets in the Northeast-10 Conference Women's Volleyball Championships Saturday evening.

Adelphi, which was a point away from losing for the second straight night, evened the final set on a kill by sophomore Mandy Stanislovaitis (West Chester, Ohio). Bentley regained the lead at 15-14 on a service error, but a kill by Panther senior Haley Blunt (East Seatucket, N.Y.) squared the set at 15-15.

Blunt put her team in front with her fourth kill of the final set and a Bentley attack error gave fourth-seeded Adelphi (16-14) a 17-15 fifth-set victory and the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II East Regional. The Falcons, who are ranked fourth in the East, should receive an at-large bid when the field is announced Sunday night (10 pm, NCAA.com).

Blunt powered the new NE-10 champions with 18 kills and 25 digs. Stanislovaitis followed with 12, along with 15 digs, and senior Kaitlyn DeStefano (Farmingdale, N.Y.), the championship's Most Outstanding Player, also had 12. She also had her hand in seven of her team's 13 blocks.

Senior outside hitter Tatiana Froehlich (Newton, Mass./Newton North HS) led Bentley with 14 kills and four blocks, and senior middle Savannah Dominguez (Miami, Fla./Palmer Trinity HS) returned from injury to provide ten kills, five digs, three aces and two blocks. Five of her kills came in the fourth set that saw the Falcons roll to a 25-15 victory after dropping the previous two.

Bentley had a good start to the night, using five Froehlich kills to take the opening set 25-23. The Falcons never threatened in the next two, falling 25-10 and 25-18 with a combined 13 kills and 17 errors.

Senior setter Alex Tator (Los Angeles, Calif./Marlborough School) recorded 34 assists for Bentley, along with 12 digs, and senior libero Lauren Colasanti (Northville, Mich./Northville HS), the Falcons' representative on the All-Championship team, had 18 digs. Bentley also received 15 digs and eight kills from junior Jaci Buscher (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain HS).

Statistically, the Panthers had the edge in virtually every category, including kills (58-46), hitting (.188-.093), digs (89-73) and blocks (13-6). Bentley finished with seven aces, two more than Adelphi.