The women's volleyball team dropped its Big East opener this weekend at St. John's, falling to the Red Storm in five sets after rallying from a two-set deficit.
Junior Shelbey Manthorpe had a team-high 38 assists along with 12 kills and 13 digs, recording her second straight triple-double and fourth of the season.
Her twin sister, Stacey Manthorpe, had a team-leading 17 kills, 15 digs and a double-double.
Senior Alyssa Warren finished with a team-high 26 digs, which marked the sixth time she reached the 20-dig mark this season.
Head coach Allison Yaeger noted the fact that her team fought hard.
"The girls are fighters," Yaeger said. "We do definitely have to work on coming out hard, fast and having a sense of urgency at the beginning of games."
After losing the first two sets to the Red Storm, the Pirates rallied in set three taking a 14-9 lead on a block by Stacey Manthorpe and sophomore Amanda Hansen.
St. John's rallied to tie the set at 17, but Seton Hall ultimately took charge scoring the last three points of the set.
Junior Stacey Manthorpe's kill gave the Pirates a 25-22 victory for set three.
The Pirates kept their momentum alive in set four, scoring 12 of the first 15 points.
The Red Storm came back to cut the lead to 15-10, but the Pirates did not let them take the lead.
They won set four with a score of 25-18.
It came down to the fifth set, when Seton Hall took a 4-1 lead off of blocks by Stacey Manthorpe and junior Ashani Rubin.
The Pirates added five points, taking a 9-4 lead and forcing the Red Storm to take a timeout.
After their timeout, St. John's went on a 9-1 run and took a 13-10 lead. Seton Hall came back to tie the score at 13 after a pair of kills by Shelbey Manthorpe and a spike by Stacey Manthorpe.
St. John's answered with the final two points, winning the set 15-13 and taking the match.
"It's too bad that we opened with a loss against St. John's," Yaeger said. "But at the same time St. John's is a good team, but so are we, so it was a little disappointing and that just means we have to play that much harder this week at practice, and hopefully we come out with some wins."
The Pirates return to the court Friday, Oct. 4, when they travel to Cincinnati for their first-ever match against Xavier.
This will also mark the first time the two meet as part of the new Big East conference. Match time is set for 7 p.m.
Courtney Hnasko can be reached at courtney.hnasko@student.shu.edu.
