Saturday Sweep for UAlbany Volleyball as Great Danes Defeat Rutgers and Colgate
UAlbany-Rutgers: Box Score | Box Score (PDF)
UAlbany-Colgate: Box Score | Box Score (PDF)
HAMILTON, N.Y. – The UAlbany volleyball team finished the Colgate Classic with a pair of victories over Rutgers (25-15, 25-20, 17-25, 25-9) and Colgate (25-17, 25-19, 25-13) for a Saturday sweep.
With the two wins, UAlbany (5-4) earned second place in the Colgate Classic with a 2-1 record, finishing only behind Yale. Rutgers (2-7) got third at 1-2 and Colgate (0-9) finished in fourth.
Laini Leindecker and Tatum Jungsten each earned a place on the All-Tournament Team. On the day, Leindecker hit .314 with 28 kills and 20 digs with a double-double against Colgate. Jungsten finished with nine kill, nine blocks, four aces and 12 digs. Shannon Hurley notched 23 kills and four blocks while Mikala McCauley tallied 60 assists, 11 kills and four aces.
“Today was a total team effort,” said UAlbany coach MJ Engstrom. “The freshmen were very good. Laini [Leindecker] came through in the end, Tatum [Jungsten] had an outstanding tournament with hitting and serving and Mikala [McCauley] may have had her best tournament. We are starting to come together; they did a lot better job staying focused, and we are maturing.”
For Rutgers, Meme Fletcher finished with 16 kills and four digs. Eden Frazier hit .312 with six kills, two aces and two blocks.
Against UAlbany, Kathleen Harris got a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs, as did Molly Smith with 27 assists and 11 digs.
Rutgers started with a 4-1 lead in the first set, later leading 5-2. Jungsten earned a kill and served an ace to stop the run. A few points later, UAlbany used a pair of 3-0 runs, with Leindecker adding a kill on each of them, to take a 12-8 lead. At 15-12, Hurley notched a kill to send Jungsten back to serve again. Jungsten served an ace, then two Rutgers attack errors helped UAlbany build a 19-12 lead. Rutgers looked to comeback after a timeout, getting three points back including a kill and block from Eden Frazier. McCauley took command in the final stretch, stopping the run with a dump kill. She went back to serve, using a pair of aces and a back row kill to help UAlbany surge ahead. A Hurley solo block completed the 6-0 run as UAlbany took set one 25-15.
UAlbany kept going in the second set, using kills from rookies Chloe Lamb and Gabrielle Hansen to begin the game up 3-0. The Great Danes used another couple of 3-0 runs to build the advantage to 10-3. Using a trio of kills from Meme Fletcher, Rutgers pulled to within 12-9, later 13-11 off a Fletcher ace. Jungsten added a block and kill to a 4-0 run as UAlbany led 17-11. At 19-13, a Rutgers service error, two Hurley kills and a Rutgers attack error made the score 23-13 UAlbany. Rutgers made a last charge with six-consecutive points, capped by three Fletcher kills. Again, McCauley had a late dump kill to stop the streak. UAlbany took the second set 25-20 to go up 2-0 in the match.
Leindecker earned a kill and ace early as UAlbany started the third set up 5-3. After a Frazier kill, Ronnie Komisarek served Rutgers to the lead to 8-5. After some back and forth play, a 4-0 Rutgers run made it 15-9 Scarlet Knights. At 18-12, a Hurley kill, McCauley ace and Amanda Dolan kill brought UAlbany to within three at 18-15, but Rutgers responded with the next four points. Rutgers got set three 25-17 as UAlbany led 2-1 in the match.
UAlbany got off to a dominant start in set four. After Hurley notched a kill, UAlbany let Rutgers fire away, leading to six Rutgers attack errors. Jungsten added an ace and Hurley added a second kill as UAlbany led 9-0, later going up 11-1 after a Hurley kill and McCauley ace. UAlbany kept the foot on the pedal, scoring four in a row, sandwiched by two Leindecker kills, for a 19-6 advantage. Late kills from Dolan and Hurley ended the game as UAlbany took set four 25-9 to seal the match in four.
The Great Danes returned to Cotterell Court to battle tournament host Colgate and finish the invitational. UAlbany picked up where it left off, using two Hurley kills to win six of the first seven points. After a bit of back and forth, kills by Dolan and McCauley started a 3-0 run, then after a Jaelah Hutchison kill, Lamb notched a kill and Paula Pinto hit an ace to spark a 4-0 run for a 15-5 UAlbany advantage. Colgate tried to claw back with a couple of small runs, pulling to within six at 21-15. Leindecker helped end it with a kill and ace late as UAlbany took the first set 25-17.
Next game began more evenly with UAlbany using a 3-0 run to go up 5-3. Colgate kept winning multiple points to UAlbany's one, taking a 12-8 lead after a pair of UAlbany errors. After a timeout and a Leindecker kill, Nicole Otero served UAlbany back into the lead, then Pinto served, helped by a Leindecker kill and Jungsten solo block, to build the advantage to 21-17. A final 3-0 run gave UAlbany the victory 25-19 to go up two sets to none.
Two early runs, the first on kills from Hurley and Jungsten and the second on Colgate errors, gave UAlbany a 7-2 advantage in the third set. The two teams exchanged points, with Leindecker and Kathleen Harris earning kills, until a UAlbany 3-0 run, with kills from Leindecker and Hurley, made the score 14-8 Great Danes. After Colgate got a pair of points, Jungsten delivered struck with the hammer on her serving, using kills by Dolan and Leindecker to lead 20-10. Leindecker added two more late kills as the Great Danes took game three 25-13 to complete the sweep of Colgate.
Next weekend, UAlbany heads to Wisconsin to complete in the Marquette Invitational.
