UAlbany Volleyball Sweeps UMBC to Finish Tied for Second Place in America East
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BALTIMORE – The UAlbany volleyball team swept UMBC on the road (26-24, 25-19, 25-19) to earn a tie for second place in the league and pick up the 3-seed in the upcoming America East Tournament.
With the win, 3-seed UAlbany (9-15, 7-5 AE) will face 2-seed Binghamton in the America East semifinals on Friday, November 21st at 3 p.m. in Durham, New Hampshire. 1-seed UNH serves as host and will play 4-seed Stony Brook.
UAlbany earns a tie for second place in America East play, tying Binghamton and Stony Brook in league record. Binghamton had the head-to-head tiebreak with UAlbany, while UAlbany had the points tiebreaker on Stony Brook.
“We started out very slow, and the whole match we did not serve well, however we started to find our stride offensively at the end of the first set and maintained it the rest of the way,” said UAlbany coach MJ Engstrom.
Amanda Dolan hit .588 with 11 kills off 17 attacks, while Laini Leindecker nearly had a double-double, hitting .391 with 13 kills and eight digs. Amy Hunter also notched 13 kills with two blocks. Viktoriia Stroilo led the team with 16 digs at libero.
“Laini [Leindecker] and Amy [Hunter] did a great job on the outside, and Amanda [Dolan] was almost unstoppable in the middle,” said Engstrom. “Defensively, Vik [Stroilo] was her usual reliable self, and Lauren [Spreen] did an outstanding job passing. It is a good team win and helps us going into the playoffs.”
For UMBC (10-15, 4-8 AE), Zova Trendafilova had a double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs. Hannah Schmidt tallied seven kills and five digs.
UMBC started the first set with eight of the first 10 points, leading to UAlbany calling timeout. Hunter had two kills to start a 3-0 run, which was countered by a UMBC 3-0 run for an 11-5 score. At 12-6, a Leindecker kill led to a 3-0 run for UAlbany. Two Hunter kills sparked another 3-0 streak for UAlbany, but UMBC held the lead and was up 19-16. After a Hunter kill, Lauren Spreen went back to serve. Leindecker earned four-consecutive kills to surge UAlbany ahead 21-19. UMBC tied it up at 22-22, when two Leindecker kills gave UAlbany a 24-23 advantage. A Sherelle Walker kill tied the game at 24-24. Next point, Hunter notched the kill for set point, then Sofia Furlong earned a kill to finish it in favor of UAlbany 26-24.
UAlbany picked up where it left off into the second set, using a pair of 3-0 runs off serving of Mikala McCauley and Leindecker to lead 6-2. At 9-5, UMBC got the next four, including three kills, to tie the set. UAlbany countered with three in a row, started by a Hunter kill and capped by a Spreen ace, to lead 12-9. After a Schmidt kill made it 16-13, Hunter earned a kill, then four-consecutive UMBC errors sent UAlbany up 21-13. UMBC won a couple of pairs of points, but the Great Danes held their lead. A Dolan kill ended the set in favor of UAlbany 25-19, sending the team up 2-0.
An early 3-0 spurt put UMBC up 5-3 in the third game. A 3-0 run off Emily Lopes's serving put the visitors up 6-5. Back-and-forth the teams went, until at 11-11, UAlbany took the next three, capped by Hunter and Furlong kills, to make it 14-11, later leading 18-14 after a pair of points, capped by a Tatum Jungsten ace. UMBC got two points, then UAlbany got them back on kills from Leindecker and Dolan. UMBC pulled back within two at 21-19, but UAlbany held its ground. Following a UMBC service error, a Jungsten kill, Stroilo ace and a Furlong kill ended it 25-19, giving the three-set match to UAlbany.
