UAlbany Volleyball Earns Share of the 2015 America East Regular Season Title with 3-0 Sweep at UMass Lowell

Box Score | Box Score (PDF)

LOWELL, Mass. – The UAlbany volleyball team earned a share of its ninth America East regular season title with a 3-0 road sweep (25-19, 25-13, 25-18) of UMass Lowell on Friday night.

UAlbany (16-8, 11-1 AE) has won 10 matches in a row and secures a part of the America East regular season title for the first time since 2012.  UAlbany can get the 2015 America East regular season title outright if UNH, currently standing at 10-1 in the league, falls to UMBC on Sunday.

“UMass Lowell is a difficult environment to play in with the low ceiling and the fans on top of you; we practiced this week with the hitting cages lowered to get used to having to watch the ceiling when the ball went high off a dig, and it seemed to help with the transition,” said UAlbany coach MJ Engstrom, who leads the Great Danes to part of a sixth America East regular season title.

UAlbany hit .269 against UMass Lowell (4-24, 1-10 AE) and outblocked the River Hawks 9-5.

Amanda Dolan hit .529 with nine kills, no attack errors and six blocks.  Mikala McCauley earned a double-double with 27 assists, 16 digs and seven kills while Laini Leindecker finished with eight kills and 14 digs.

“Kudos go out to Gabrielle Hansen, who played all-around for the first time in her collegiate career,” said Engstrom. “A number of players had strong nights, and I'm really proud that we were able to come out tonight in a tough place and do what we needed to do to earn part of the regular season title.”

Rachel Arnason led UMass Lowell with 11 kills and nine digs.  Haley Shimon picked up nine kills.

An early 4-0 run put UMass Lowell up 6-2 in the first set and later 8-3.  A Chloe Lamb kill helped UAlbany to come back.  At 10-6, a Leindecker kill and block brought the Great Danes within two.  After a Shimon kill, McCauley served UAlbany through a 6-0 run to make it 14-11 Great Danes.  With a couple of kills, UML got to within one at 15-14.  UAlbany countered with a 4-0 run, including kills from three different players, to push the team up 19-14.  Again the River Hawks pulled close to 21-18.  Leindecker spearheaded the attack the rest of the way with three late kills as UAlbany took the first set win 25-19.

UAlbany kept the strong play going in the second set as Tatum Jungsten and McCauley had long serving runs early, leading the Great Danes to go up 8-1.  A kill and block from Lade Adeniyi helped the home team pull within 10-6.  The teams kept exchanging back and forth as UAlbany held a strong advantage.  Kills from Leindecker and Lamb made the score 19-12.  Following a UML kill, Nicole Otero served the team through the rest of the set for a 6-0 run and a 25-13 set two victory.

As UML lead 4-2 early, UAlbany took the next three to go up 5-4 in the third set.  UML took back the lead at 8-7, then the teams exchanged the lead again as UAlbany went up 12-10.  At 13-12 UAlbany, Leindecker served and the Great Danes let UML swing away, leading to the team going up 17-12.  Dolan, McCauley and Hansen got late kills as the team used another 4-0 run to build a strong lead.  UML won three in a row late, but UAlbany held and took the game 25-18 to sweep the match.

UAlbany will now prepare for the America East Tournament.  The location will be announced on Sunday.