WALTHAM, Mass. – Five days after falling to Adelphi University in the Northeast-10 Conference championship game, the Bentley University women's volleyball team will get another chance at the Panthers when the two teams meet Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II East Regional at the University of Bridgeport.

The match, the fourth of the day at Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium, is scheduled for a 7:30 pm start. A link to watch online will be posted at www.bentleyfalcons.com.

Bentley, 18-11 overall, received the number four seed as an at-large selection while Adelphi, the recipient of the Northeast-10's automatic berth, is seeded fifth. The Falcons are in the NCAAs for the 12th time, but the first since 2009, before any of the current players were on the team. On the other hand, the Panthers are tourney-tested as they'll be making their eighth straight appearance.

Saturday's conference championship saw Bentley win the first set, drop in the next two and rally to take the fourth, 25-15, and force a decisive fifth set. In that one, Adelphi started fast (leads of 4-1 and 12-8), but the Falcons battled back and twice were a point away from clinching the championship, 14-13 and 15-14. Two Panther kills turned the one-point lead into a one-point deficit and an attack error closed out the final.

That was the second five-set match between the two teams this month. Back on Nov. 1 down on Long Island, Bentley rallied from a 2-0 deficit and captured the win by a 15-12 count in the fifth.

The top ten for acting coach Joey Pacis is a veteran group, one that features six seniors. Lauren Colasanti (Northville, Mich./Northville HS) and Alex Tator (Los Angeles, Calif./Marlborough School) have been fixtures over the last four years, at libero and setter, respectively. Colasanti, who'll be playing in her 114th consecutive match Thursday, is third in program history in digs (1,727) and Tator, a second-team All-NE-10 pick for the second time, ranks fifth in assists, 66 shy of 3,000.

Four of Bentley's top five in kills are seniors, the lone exception being All-Conference junior Jaci Buscher (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain HS) who leads the team with 257 (2.60 per set) and is also second in kills (2.86).

Among the seniors, Tatiana Froehlich (Newton/Newton North HS) is at 2.53, Savannah Dominguez (Miami, Fla./Palmer Trinity HS) follows at 2.30 and both Kaleigh Sullivan (Naples, Fla./Harley School (N.Y.)) and Simone Silvera (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) are about 1.5. Sophomore Ashley Latimer (Croton on Hudson, N.Y./Croton Harmon HS) has been one of the more effective hitters with her .215 mark second to Dominguez (.240).

Dominguez, a third-team All-Northeast-10 selection, and Silvera share the lead in blocks, each at 0.72. Tator's 33 aces is tied for the team-high total with freshman Shannon Kelly (Hyde Park, N.Y./ Franklin D. Roosevelt HS), and junior defensive specialist Jessica Segal (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison HS) is third in digs (2.59).  

Adelphi, which had lost five in a row to finish the regular season, comes in at 16-14 after winning the conference tournament in dramatic fashion. In addition to being a point away from elimination twice in the finals, they were in a similar situation in the fourth set of the semis before rallying to oust top-seeded New Haven.

Haley Blunt, who sparked the comeback on Saturday, and NE-10 championship MVP Kaitlyn DiStefano both average 2.8 kills for the Panthers with DiStefano the conference leader in both blocks (1.25) and hitting (.367).

The winner of Thursday night's match-up will take on the winner of the Bridgeport-Post University game Friday at 7:30 pm. Bridgeport comes in as the regional's top seed.