BOX SCORE WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven women’s volleyball team held off visiting Stonehill in five sets in a Northeast-10 Championship Quarterfinal on Tuesday evening at Charger Gymnasium. The top-seeded Chargers advance and will host the semifinal and championship rounds of the tournament this Friday and Saturday.
 
With the victory by set scores of 25-20, 25-16, 29-31, 22-25 and 15-8, New Haven improves to 25-1 overall. The Chargers are riding a 22-match winning streak, which is tied for the fifth-longest in program history. The Blue and Gold will host fourth-seeded Southern Connecticut State in its semifinal on Friday, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. Stonehill, which was the championship’s eighth-seeded team, wraps up its 2012 campaign at 13-15.
 
Keidy Candelaria (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Bayamon Military Academy) led four Chargers in double figures with a match-best 18 kills. Candelaria also fell one dig short of a double-double, while Kristen Lee (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) reached the milestone with 13 kills and 19 digs. Amber Cannady (Yonkers, N.Y./Charles E. Gorton) added 14 kills in addition to having a hand in seven of New Haven’s nine blocks, and fellow middle hitter Kristy Atufunwa (Denver, Colo./Denver East) slammed home 11 finishers.
 
Kaulana Ane (Paia, Hawai'i/Kamehameha) ran the offense and dished out 50 assists. She completed a double-double with 14 digs and picked up seven kills of her own. Ashley Dalton (Helena, Mont./Capital / Northern Arizona University) and Kea-Marie Olaso (Kailua, Hawai'i/Le Jardin Academy) rounded out the offense with one kill apiece. Collectively, New Haven hit .181 (65-29-199) in the five-set contest.
 
Olaso led the effort in the back row with 25 digs, and Bai Zhang (China/Shan Dong Zi Bo No. 10 / China Shan Dong Normal University) chipped in with 21. In addition to Cannady’s seven rejections, Atufunwa and Lee each had two as the New Haven defense limited Stonehill to a .096 (56-36-209) hitting percentage.
 
Ane, Lee and Olaso accounted for the Chargers’ trio of service aces.
 
Kelsey Weymouth tallied a double-double for the Skyhawks with 14 kills and 19 digs. Emily Iverson doled out 45 assists, and Erin Kelly led all players with 26 digs.
 
Stonehill made the first run of the match, rattling off seven-straight points in set one to open up an 11-7 advantage. But, while the Chargers never put together a stretch of more than three consecutive points in the set, the New Haven defense held the Skyhawks without back-to-back points for the remainder of the frame. The Chargers battled back to knot the score at 16-16 and never trailed again en route to putting away a 25-20 decision.
 
Set two had the only wire-to-wire winner of the evening. New Haven tallied the first three points of the set and never looked back. The Chargers allowed consecutive Stonehill points on only three occasions and took the frame running away, 25-26, to move within one set of a quarterfinal victory.
 
With their backs against the wall, the Skyhawks raced out to an early 4-0 lead in set three. The Chargers responded by winning five of the next six rallies to force the first of 12 ties in the frame at 5-5. New Haven would again fall behind by four points at 17-13 but answered to tie the score at 20-20.  Stonehill was the first team to earn a set-point opportunity at 25-24, but the Chargers would quell three chances by the visitors to claim the set. However, the Skyhawks would convert their fourth set-point try to stay alive with a marathon, 31-29 win.
 
Stonehill was again the aggressor in set four, taking an 8-3 lead to force a New Haven timeout. Much like the rest of the match, a rally was eminent and the score was soon deadlocked at 12-12. The Chargers would eventually take the lead at 18-17 and maintain it to a 22-21 count, but New Haven would not score again as the Skyhawks won the last four points to force a deciding fifth set.
 
Trailing 4-3 early in set five, the Chargers broke the match open with a 5-1 spurt to claim an 8-5 advantage. This time, New Haven would not relinquish the lead as a late 4-0 run helped to decide a 15-8 win and a 3-2 victory in the match.
 
In total, the contest featured 33 ties and 12 lead changes.
 
Following the Chargers’ semifinal match against Southern Connecticut State on Friday, second-seeded Adelphi and sixth-seeded Pace will meet in the other semifinal. The Northeast-10 Conference Championship Match will be held at Charger Gymnasium on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 5 p.m. Check back to NewHavenChargers.com on Wednesday for a complete Championship Central homepage.