ALBANY, N.Y. – The UAlbany volleyball team saw its 10-match winning streak end on Friday night after falling three against Binghamton (23-25, 20-25, 16-25) on the annual Dig Pink match.
UAlbany (12-7, 6-1 AE) led 18-14 in the first set but fell in a Binghamton (10-11, 4-3 AE) comeback and did not lead in either of the next two sets.
“Binghamton played a great match today,” said UAlbany head coach MJ Engstrom. “We will regroup and get ready for our next match against Hartford.”
Despite the loss, UAlbany retains first place in the America East at 6-1 with a one match lead over UMBC.
Akuabata Okenwa led UAlbany with nine kills and four blocks, each team-highs. Chloe Evering had seven kills while Nicole Otero notched 22 digs.
For Binghamton, Lauren Kornmann finished with 17 kills and six digs while Bianca Anderson hit .526 for 11 kills and three blocks.
Four early kills helped give Binghamton a 5-1 lead in the first set. After some back and forth, Gabrielle Hansen served UAlbany back to a tie at 7-7. Down 9-8, UAlbany took five of the next six, capped by a Laini Leindecker service ace, for a 13-10 advantage, increasing the lead to four after an Amanda Dolan-Mikala McCauley combo block to go up 17-13. Two blocks and two kills helped BU to tie the set up at 18. The sides kept exchanging until a Kristella Morina-Erin Shultz combo block to go up 22-21. UAlbany used an Evering kill to tie the set at 23-23, but BU got the final two points to win set one 25-23.
Sarah Ngo had an early serving run to put BU up 3-0 in the second set. McCauley, Taylor Robinson and Evering all got kills as UAlbany tried to get back into the set, pulling to within two after a Hansen ace. BU got five of the next six, including an Anderson kill and block, to lead 15-9. UAlbany won a couple of pair of points to pull within four at 18-14. A late Emily Zimmerman service ace got UAlbany back within four late, but BU took set two 25-20 to lead 2-0 in the match.
UAlbany used a 3-0 run to tie the third set at 4-4. After some back and forth, Leindecker and Evering notched kills to make it 8-8. Including five Kormann kills, BU won the next nine points to lead 17-8. Okenwa got a kill and block to tie to spur on a comeback, with the Bearcats countering with four in a row to lead 22-11. Otero served UAlbany to three straight points, but UAlbany could not bridge the gap and fell 25-16 to drop the match in three.
UAlbany will play its next match in a week, traveling east to Hartford on Friday, October 28th at 7 p.m.
