Volleyball Score: Stony Brook 3, UAlbany 2 (25-17, 14-25, 18-25, 25-21, 8-15)
Location: Stony Brook, N.Y. – Pritchard Gym
Records: UAlbany (16-11) Stony Brook (21-8)
Head Coach MJ Engstrom
“We played tough and we played a good match tonight. We have a very young team, we played three freshmen for most of the match. Credit to Stony Brook, they seized the opportunities when it mattered.”
Short Story: In a battle of the top-two seeds, the second-seeded UAlbany volleyball team saw its season end in a five-set heartbreaker in the America East Championship on Saturday evening. The Great Danes fought back to even the match 2-2 but ultimately fell, 3-2, to top-seeded Stony Book.
By the Numbers:
- Akuabata Okenwa notched a game-high 21 kills, while Chloe Evering chipped in with 14 kills and a .238 hitting percentage.
- Stony Brook's Leanne Sakowicz tallied 54 assists to lead all players and added a match-best three aces.
- Stony Brook finished the night hitting .254, while UAlbany was limited to a .170 mark.
- Nicole Otero posted 28 digs, marking her 15th game with 20-plus digs this season.
Final Notes: The Great Danes comeback fell just short, as No. 1 Stony Brook slipped by No. 2 UAlbany to claim the America East Championship on Saturday night.
Junior Akuabata Okenwa posted a game-high 21 kills in the match, while senior Nicole Otero notched a match-best 28 digs. Otero graduates third all-time in program history with 1,891 career digs.
“Across the weekend we played good volleyball. We had great energy against New Hampshire yesterday, and just lost a little bit of that energy tonight. Congratulations to Nicole on an accomplished career.”
Okenwa and Otero were selected to the America East All-Tournament team for their efforts on the court this weekend. Junior Chloe Evering earned the prestigious Elite-8 award, given to the athlete with the highest cumulative GPA competing in the championship. Evering, a biology major, owns a 3.98 GPA.
UAlbany finishes the 2018 season with a 16-11 overall record and a 10-3 clip in America East action.
Earlier this year, Otero was named the America East Defensive Player of the Year for a record-setting third time in her career while Andersen Vaughan was tabbed the Rookie of the Year. In all, six Great Danes garnered All-Conference selection.
