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Jaci Buscher
Jaci Buscher

Bentley Sweeps Past Stonehill to Reach Saturday’s NE-10 Championship

                WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Junior All-Conference outside hitter Jaci Buscher (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain HS) had her ninth double-double and senior setter Alex Tator (Los Angeles, Calif./Marlborough School) provided the assist on 31 of her team's 36 kills as third-seeded Bentley University swept number two Stonehill College in the semifinals of the 2014 Northeast-10 Conference Women's Volleyball Championships Friday night at the University of New Haven's Charger Gymnasium.

Bentley, which will be making its 16th appearance in the conference championship, will face fourth-seeded Adelphi University in Saturday's 5 pm final with the Falcons seeking their tenth title overall and first since 2006. The fourth-seeded Panthers recovered from being down 2-1 in the match and 24-22 deficit in the fourth to upend top-seeded New Haven in five.

The Falcons, who avenged a regular season loss to the Skyhawks, rarely trailed in the 25-23, 25-22, 25-18 victory with the team's biggest deficit being 5-2 early in the third set.

One of the few times Bentley was on the short end of the score was late in the first when a kill by junior Delia Phillips (St. James, N.Y.) gave Stonehill a 22-21 lead. The Falcons came back with a kill from senior Simone Silvera (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook HS) and consecutive aces from freshman Shannon Kelly (Hyde Park, N.Y./Franklin D. Roosevelt HS) to go up 24-22.

Following a Phillips kill, an attack error by Phillips provided set point for the Falcons.

Bentley vaulted out of the gate in the second with a 6-1 start, three of those points coming on kills from senior Tatiana Froehlich (Newton/Newton North HS). The Skyhawks closed within one at 22-21, but a ball-handling error and an ace from senior Lauren Colasanti (Northville, Mich./Northville HS) put the Falcons back in control. Another Froehlich kill ended the set, giving Bentley a 2-0 lead in the match.

An ace by Silvera gave Bentley a 6-5 lead in the third and the Falcons never let it go, with the final seven-point spread the biggest of the set.

Buscher led Bentley in kills with ten and also had ten digs and two blocks. Froehlich finished with eight kills and sophomore Ashley Latimer (Croton on Hudson, N.Y./Croton Harmon HS) followed with seven, along with five blocks. Defensively, Colasanti made 12 digs and junior Jessica Segal (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison HS) recorded nine.

Bentley (18-10) hit .266 with only 11 errors and limited Stonehill (21-7) to .162. The Falcons also had advantages in aces (8-7), digs (50-41) and blocks (6-5).

Bentley and Adelphi played once during the regular season with the Falcons overcoming a 2-0 deficit to prevail in five Nov. 1 on Long Island.