UAlbany Volleyball Clashes with New Hampshire in 2015 America East Title Match

Watch Live on the Pack Network/AmericaEast.tv | Live Stats

DURHAM, N.H. – The league's regular season co-champions will meet one more time to determine the America East champion as UAlbany and New Hampshire will play in the title match on Saturday, November 20th at 5 p.m. in the Lundholm Gymnasium.

The match will be broadcast online for free by the Pack Network on AmericaEast.tv.

UAlbany defeated Stony Brook in straight sets (25-18, 25-19, 25-15) in the semifinals to reach its eighth title match in nine years.  New Hampshire, the two-time defending America East champion, defeated Binghamton in four sets (25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22) to return to the championship match. 

2-seed UAlbany shared the America East regular season title with New Hampshire, who got the 1-seed off the tiebreaker of points vs. conference competition.

Both UAlbany and New Hampshire earned an 11-1 league record, with each defeating the other on the road in three sets.  Overall, UAlbany stands at 17-8 while New Hampshire has a 20-8 record.

The winner of this match will determine the America East Tournament champion and who will receive the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament.

UALBANY: AMERICA EAST CO-CHAMPIONS: Going 11-1 in conference play, UAlbany earned a part of the America East title for the first time since 2012, sharing the award with New Hampshire.  After a home loss to UNH on October 2nd, the Great Danes have won 10 in a row, including a win over New Hampshire, to secure its part of the regular season title.  As a program, UAlbany has won nine America East regular season titles.

UALBANY PLAYERS CHASING RECORDS: Two UAlbany players have added their names to the record book in blocks.  Amanda Dolan stands with 315 total blocks for 5th place in program history, two away from 4th. Tatum Jungsten is 8th in program history with 281 total blocks.  Chris Hofer holds the UAlbany record with 597 blocks from 1984-87, while Kamisha Kellam has the DI record with 416 from 2005-08.

Mikala McCauley is currently in the UAlbany record book, standing 6th in program history with 2,393 assists.  She is 432 away from 5th.  The UAlbany record is 5,049 by Blair Buchanan from 2003-06.

LAST TIME: UALBANY SWEEPS STONY BROOK: UAlbany punched its ticket into the America East title match by shutting out Stony Brook in three sets (25-18, 25-19, 25-15) in the conference semifinals.

As a team, UAlbany hit .207, compared to Stony Brook's .057, and had 10 blocks.  Amanda Dolan hit .500 with 10 kills and five blocks while Mikala McCauley had a double-double with 27 assists and 12 digs.  Taylor Wilson led Stony Brook with eight kills and 13 digs.

UALBANY EARNS THREE AMERICA EAST YEARLY AWARDS: After earning a share of the league regular season title, the UAlbany volleyball team was well represented in the America East awards, earning three yearly honors and five all-conference players.

Laini Leindecker was selected as the America East Co-Player of the Year, the eighth time a UAlbany player has received this honor and first since 2012.  Nicole Otero continues the UAlbany tradition in the back row as the America East Defensive Player of the Year, making 2015 the eighth year in a row a Great Dane has earned this yearly award.  In addition, the staff of head coach MJ Engstrom and assistant coaches Josh Pickard, Traci Vandegrift and Ashley Castellana was chosen as the America East Coaching Staff of the Year.  It is the first time since 2011 that UAlbany picked up three America East yearly awards.

UAlbany placed five players on the 2015 America East All-Conference teams, the most of any team.  UAlbany tied UNH for the most All-Conference First Team members with three with Leindecker, Tatum Jungsten and Mikala McCauley.  Otero and Amanda Dolan earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team.  In addition, Otero was placed on the America East All-Rookie Team while Leindecker and McCauley earned a spot on the America East All-Academic Team.

OTERO EARNS SIXTH AE DEF. SPECIALIST OF WEEK HONOR: Nicole Otero continues to be one of the top liberos in the America East, picking up her sixth America East Defensive Specialist of the Week award by the conference.  Wearing the libero shirt in all three sets vs. UMass Lowell, Otero averaged almost seven digs a game, finishing with 20 digs, five assists and having a perfect receive percentage.

TOP ATTACKERS ON THE OUTSIDE: UAlbany sports two of the top four players in the America East in kills per set.  Laini Leindecker is second in the conference with 3.52 kills a set, totaling 331 with 94 sets played.  Fellow outside hitter Shannon Hurley is fourth with 3.06 kills per set, earning 214 total kills in 70 sets.  The two have combined for 545 kills, almost half of the team's total number of kills at 1101.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: New Hampshire, coming into the tournament, allowed the lowest opponent's hitting percentage in the America East at .169. 

Junior middle and America East Co-Player of the Year Demi Muses is the team's leading hitter at .282 and blocker with 67 blocks, holding 270 kills and 31 aces.  AE Setter of the Year Keelin Severtson has a league-high 53 aces, adding 943 assists and 195 digs while senior outside hitter Tori Forrest, a six-rotation player leads the team with 285 kills, adding 277 digs.  At libero, senior Madison Lightfoot has a team-best 426 digs, adding 16 aces.

LAST MEETING: On November 1st, UAlbany traveled to UNH and won in three sets (25-18, 25-23, 25-22) to tie for first place in the America East. 

Shannon Hurley hit .452 with 15 kills in the match while Laini Leindecker had a double-double of 19 kills and 15 digs.  Abby Brinkman finished with a UNH-best 12 kills while Demi muses had 11 kills and 19 digs.

LAST TIME IN THE AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT: UAlbany and UNH met last year at Lundholm for the America East title.  UAlbany won set two but fell in four (22-25, 25-19, 25-27, 13-25) to the home team.

Laini Leindecker, with 16 kills and 16 digs, and Mikala McCauley, with 41 assists and 19 digs, each had double-doubles, while Amanda Dolan hit .263 with 13 kills and four blocks.  For UNH, Demi Muses hit .355 with 14 kills and 15 digs while Tori Forrest picked up 15 kills and 16 digs.

UALBANY VOLLEYBALL EARNS TOP TEAM GPA IN ATHLETICS: The UAlbany volleyball team earned a 3.44 GPA in the 2014-15 season, the highest GPA among all UAlbany teams during the year.  With that GPA, UAlbany was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association with a Team Academic Award.  In addition, Mikala McCauley was the America East's Elite 18 winner for volleyball in the 2014 season.

FEAR THE FRESHMEN: UAlbany brings eight freshmen for the 2015 season, hailing from all across North America.  All throughout 2015, Nicole Otero has served as the team's libero, leading UAlbany with 453 digs.  Chloe Lamb plays as UAlbany's right side hitter, leading UAlbany rookies with 103 kills and 53 blocks, while Gabrielle Hansen plays in the back row with 25 aces and 231 digs.

ENGSTROM APPROACHING TOP DI MARK AT UALBANY: At the helm of UAlbany, MJ Engstrom has amassed 138 victories, winning the America East regular season six times and taking the tournament title three times.  She was named the America East Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2011.  She is just four matches away from tying Kelly Sheffield, who had 142 wins at UAlbany, for most DI wins at the school.  In her coaching career, Engstrom has taken three different schools, UAlbany, Nicholls State and Villanova, to the NCAA Tournament.

PICKARD, VANDEGRIFT NAMED ASSISTANT COACHES: UAlbany will have a couple of new assistant coaches for the 2015 season.  Joining the team is Josh Pickard, who will serve as the first assistant after spending the last three years at Montana State.  Earning a promotion to assistant coach is Traci Vandegrift, a 2012 UAlbany alum who spent the last two years as the team's graduate assistant manager.

Another UAlbany alum earned a new coaching job for the 2015 season.  Former Great Dane setter and assistant coach Brooke Stanley was named the head coach of Converse College in South Carolina.

TIME ZONE DANES: UAlbany sports players from all four time zones in the contiguous United States.  With seven from the USA in the Eastern Time Zone, Illinois native Amanda Dolan is from the Central Time Zone, Dominique Fisher from Colorado and Lyndsey Weiler from Arizona inhabit the Mountain Time Zone while the team's California players, Tatum Jungsten, Emily Lopes and Akuabata Okenwa, live in the Pacific Time Zone.

BLAIR BUCHANAN INDUCTED IN UALBANY ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME: The all-time leader in assists in program history, Blair Buchanan has been inducted into the UAlbany Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2015.  Playing from 2003-06, Buchanan finished with 5,049 assists and 1,082 digs, standing as one of two UAlbany players in the top-10 all-time in program history in those categories.  The three-time America East All-Conference First Team setter led UAlbany to its first pair of conference tournament titles in 2004 and 2006.

2014 IN REVIEW: After defeating Boston College and UC Riverside in non-conference play, UAlbany started the season 4-1 to sit in first-place, eventually finishing tied for second place at 7-5 in the league.  As the 3-seed, UAlbany defeated 2-seed Binghamton in four sets in the America East Tournament to earn a title berth against host New Hampshire.  Despite taking set two, UAlbany fell to UNH in four sets to get the league's runner-up trophy.