ALBANY, N.Y. – The UAlbany volleyball team fell in its home regular season finale to UMBC in five sets (25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 20-25, 7-15) on Sunday afternoon at the University Gym.
UAlbany (15-8, 9-2 AE) still retains a half-match lead for first place in the America East, despite the loss to UMBC (16-7, 7-3 AE), ahead of New Hampshire.
“UMBC played very well, and we did not adjust to the things they did that were working or make changes to what was not working against them,” said UAlbany coach MJ Engstrom. “We have a lot of work to do in the next two weeks.”
Laini Leindecker had a double-double of 12 kills and 19 digs, as did Mikala McCauley with 48 assists and 11 digs, adding four blocks. Chloe Evering had a team-best 13 kills while Nicole Otero notched 26 digs.
For UMBC, Zoya Trendafilova had 23 kills and 15 digs while Ashley Ramos had 13 kills and five digs.
After back and forth play to begin the first set, UMBC went ahead with a 3-0 run to lead 13-10. Nina Holmes served UAlbany to a five-point surge to lead 15-13. UMBC countered with three in a row, then UAlbany got the next three on three kills, including two from Leindecker. UMBC took back the lead at 19-18. Emily Zimmerman went back to serve after a McCauley kill, taking UAlbany through the rest of the set with an ace, adding a Taylor Robinson kill and block, for a 25-19 win.
A couple of early 3-0 runs by each team led to UAlbany leading 7-5 off Gabrielle Hansen's serving, including an ace. UMBC won a couple of pairs of points and led 11-10. At 12-12, UMBC took the next five to go up 17-12. Robinson got a late kill and block but UAlbany could not get closer as UMBC took set two 25-19 and tied the match at 1-1.
Service aces by Holmes and Hansen, plus strong serving, led UAlbany to lead 11-5 early in set three. A couple of Zoya Trendafilova kills helped UMBC pull within four at 13-9. UAlbany got a 3-0 run, including kills from Okenwa and Robinson, to lead 17-10. UMBC won a couple of pairs of points but UAlbany never relinquished the lead, ending the game on a Robinson kill for a 25-18 set three victory and 2-1 match lead.
After UAlbany led 5-2 early in the fourth, Kristin Watson took UMBC through a 4-0 run to go ahead. The teams exchanged back and forth, with UMBC going up by three, then Otero serving UAlbany back to a tie at 13-13. The teams continued the exchanged until at 19-18, UMBC blocked two attacks, then added a UAlbany error for a 23-18 lead. UMBC took the set 25-20 to force a tiebreak.
Leindecker notched a kill to give UAlbany a 1-0 lead to start the fifth. UMBC, including two kills and a block from Marissa Duncan, won nine of the next 11 to lead 9-3. UAlbany stopped the run with an Okenwa kill, but UMBC took the next three for a 12-4 advantage. UAlbany got one last run of 3-0 with kills from Robinson and Amanda Dolan, but UAlbany could not come back, falling 15-7 to fall in the match.
UAlbany gets ready for a battle for first place, taking on New Hampshire in Durham on Friday, November 11th at 7 p.m.
