UAlbany Volleyball Sweeps UMBC to Take Sole Possession of First Place in the America East
Box Score | Box Score (PDF)
ALBANY, N.Y. – The UAlbany volleyball team increased its winning streak to nine after a 3-0 sweep (25-13, 25-22, 25-16) of UMBC on Sunday to close out its home regular season.
UAlbany (15-8, 10-1 AE), with the win over UMBC (11-13, 5-5 AE), temporarily goes ahead of UNH by a half-match. UAlbany has one match remaining while UNH, at 9-1 in the America East, has two left.
“This weekend showed our growth this season at maintaining our focus and composure during matches,” said UAlbany head coach MJ Engstrom. “There were a lot of things going on, and this group had to be awesome at separating outside events from the task at hand. That focus makes our job as coaches much easier.”
Laini Leindecker finished with eight kills and 11 digs for UAlbany. Amanda Dolan hit .375 with eight kills and a block while Mikala McCauley finished with a double-double off 24 assists, 13 digs and six kills.
For UMBC, Makenzie Morgan got seven kills and nine digs. Marrisa Duncan concluded with four kills and four digs.
UAlbany got off to 3-0 start in set one off a couple of kills, adding a pair of points to make it 7-3. After a Krystal Williams kill, UAlbany took five straight, including two dump kills from McCauley, to lead 12-4. UMBC got to within six at 14-8, to which UAlbany countered with a Dolan kill, Leindecker kill and Gabrielle Hansen service ace for a 17-8 advantage. At 20-12, UAlbany finished UMBC off with five of the final six points to win set one 25-13.
UAlbany got off to a strong start with three Dolan kills, adding more from three different players, to go up 9-4 in the second set. UMBC went on a 4-0 run to pull within one at 9-8. Leindecker got kills to keep UAlbany ahead, when at 12-11, UAlbany let UMBC swing away for three attack errors, adding a Chloe Lamb kill for a 16-11 lead. The runs kept going, with UMBC getting three in a row, UAlbany earning three back then UMBC picking up four more to make it 20-19. UAlbany held off UMBC to take the set 25-22 and go up 2-0 in the match.
UMBC used two kills from Abbie Mirabella to lead 5-1 early, later going up 6-2. UAlbany countered in strong fashion off the serving of Paula Pinto and Tatum Jungsten to surge ahead 10-7. At 11-9, Lamb and McCauley kept getting kills in the front row while Hansen earned aces to give UAlbany a 17-11 advantage. After some back and forth, UAlbany won five of six points to essentially seal the set. UAlbany won the game 25-16 to take the set and sweep the match.
UAlbany plays its final regular season match on Friday, November 13th on the road, taking on UMass Lowell at 7 p.m.
