ALBANY, N.Y. - The University at Albany volleyball team continues their home slate on Friday before heading to NJIT on Sunday.
 
Masks will be required inside all buildings on campus.
 
The Great Danes will be hosting their Dig Pink match against Hartford on Friday. In conjunction with the contest, they are running an online fundraiser through the Side-Out Foundation. For more information on the foundation, click here. 
 
To donate to their fundraiser, click here.
 
MATCH INFORMATION
 
Hartford at UAlbany
DATE: Friday, October 8
TIME: 7:00 PM ET
SITE: University Gym - Albany, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 5-11, 1-1 America East | Hartford 2-13, 0-2 America East
SERIES RECORD: 29-1, UAlbany leads
STATS: UAlbanySports.com
STREAM: AE.TV
 
UAlbany at NJIT
DATE: Sunday, October 10
TIME: 3:30 PM ET
SITE: Wellness and Events Center - Newark, N.J.
RECORDS: UAlbany 5-11, 1-1 America East | NJIT 1-14, 0-2 America East
SERIES RECORD: 1-1
STATS: NJITHighlanders.com
STREAM: AE.TV
 
*records as of 10/7
 
GREAT DANE REWIND

• UAlbany opened their home slate with the Crowne Plaza Albany - The Desmond Hotel Volleyball Classic on September 3. The Great Danes closed the tournament defeating Cornell, 3-1 on Sept. 4. 
• UAlbany opened their season with a 1-2 record at the Syracuse Tournament (Aug. 27-28), defeating UB (Aug. 28), 3-0, for their first win of the season, before beating Marist, 3-1, on Tuesday (Aug. 31). The Great Danes traveled to Texas for the Texas A&M Invitational (Sept. 10-11) and competed in the Jayhawk Classic hosted by the University of Kansas (Sept. 17-18).
• Closing out their non-conference season, UAlbany hosted Siena for a 3-0 match in the first-ever School Supplies Night (Sept. 22). 
• The Great Danes began America East play with a 3-2 loss at Binghamton (Sept. 26).
• Most recently, UAlbany tallied their first conference win, hosting Stony Brook, for a 3-0 victory on October 3.
• Freshman Oren Abutbul and junior Kamara Kelly lead the offense with 145 kills each. Abutbul holds the slight lead with 2.46 kills/set to Kelly's 2.42.
• Junior Malea Stanton and freshman Elaina Wamhoff serve as the team's main setters. Stanton leads with 300 assists and 5.08 assists/set. Wamhoff follows with 247 assists and 4.12 assists/set.
• Senior Charlotte Macken owns a team-high on both offense and defense. She leads with 23 service aces, 249 digs, and 4.15 digs/set. 
• Freshman Anissia Wong leads the blockers with 65.0 total blocks, including seven solo blocks, and 1.08 blocks/set.
• Other Great Dane standouts include freshman Lilou Stegeman (third on the team with 42.0 blocks) and senior Regan Wright (second with 13 service aces, 124 digs, and 2.38 digs/set).

 
ABOUT HARTFORD

• The Hawks completed the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 2-11 record.
• Hartford went 0-3 at the Boston College Invitational (Aug. 27-28) in Chestnut Hill, Mass., before going 1-2 at the Yale Invitational (Sept. 3-4) capturing a 3-2 win against Quinnipiac University.
• The Hawks won all three sets against Merrimack College in the Rhode Island Invitational (Sept. 10-11).
• Hartford hosted their home invitational on September 16-17, playing against Central Connecticut, Dartmouth and Brown for three losses before tallying a 3-1 loss against Bryant (Sept. 21).
• The Hawks opened conference play with two losses against New Hampshire and UMBC.
• Camryn Luginbuhl leads the team with 195 kills, averaging 3.82 kills/set.
• Morgan Galligan serves as the main setter, totaling 406 assists, for a 7.96 assists per set average.
• On defense, Alex Lucero leads with 241 digs and Valerie Diede leads with 47 blocks, including a team-high fourteen solo blocks.

 
SERIES AGAINST THE HAWKS

• The Great Danes lead the all-time series, 29-1.
• In their last meeting, the Great Danes won at home on March 22. 
• UAlbany holds a 22 match win streak including both matches throughout the 2020 season.
• The first game of the 2020-21 season saw a 3-0 win on March 21, 2021. Kamara Kelly led the team overall with 10 kills and nine digs. Other standouts included Danielle Tedesco (nine kills), Charlotte Macken (10 digs), and Malea Stanton (18 assists).
• In a second 3-0 win, Kelly led with 11 kills and Macken led with 15 digs on March 22, 2021.

 
ABOUT NJIT

• The Highlanders opened the season with a win against St. Peters, before losing the next fourteen games.
• NJIT has made appearances in three tournaments - the Delaware Invitational (Sept. 3-4), the Rutgers Tournament (Sept. 10-11), and the Dog Pound Challenge at UConn (Sept. 17-18) - with three individual games against Lafayette (Sept. 7), Fairleigh Dickinson (Sept. 14) and Seton Hall (Sept. 21).
• The Highlanders opened conference play with two losses against Binghamton (Sept. 24) and New Hampshire (Oct. 3), winning two sets against the former.
• Adriana Goetz-Morales leads with 99 kills while Elley Torres follows with 95 kills and a team-high 13 service aces.
• On defense, Kaitlyn Arias leads with 97 digs and Courtney Branch leads the blockers with 53.0 total blocks, including a team-high six solo blocks.
• Running a two-setter offense, Juliana Impaglia (231) and Kyla Lannert (144) lead the team in assists.

 
SERIES AGAINST THE HIGHLANDERS

• The series against NJIT just began as they joined the America East beginning in the 2020-21 season. 
• Both the Great Danes and the Highlanders earned a win in the spring of 2021.
• UAlbany took the first match, 3-2, but was unable to compete for the second and NJIT tallied the forfeit win.
• During the first game, Danielle Tedesco led the offense with 13 kills and the blockers with seven blocks while Kamara Kelly led the defense with 23 digs.

 
AROUND THE AMERICA EAST

• UMBC remains as the sole undefeated team in the America East with a 3-0 record.
• New Hampshire and Binghamton follow with 2-1 conference records.
• UAlbany sits in the middle of the conference with a 1-1 record.
• Stony Brook holds a .333 win percentage with their 1-2 record.
• Hartford and NJIT round out the America East, still looking for their first conference win.

 
AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK

• Friday
  • New Hampshire at Stony Brook, 6 pm
  • Hartford at UAlbany, 7 pm
  • UMBC at NJIT, 7 pm
• Sunday
  • New Hampshire at UMBC, 1 pm
  • Hartford at Binghamton, 1 pm
  • UAlbany at NJIT, 3:30 pm

 
WHAT'S UP, PRESEASON

• The Great Dane volleyball team was picked to finish first in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll. UMBC and New Hampshire were voted into a tie for second place.
• UAlbany added seven new players to the roster for the 2021 season.

 
UP NEXT

• The Great Danes will head on the road for a Friday night game at New Hampshire (Oct. 15) and a Sunday afternoon match at Hartford (Oct. 17).

For more information on the University at Albany volleyball team, follow the squad's official social media accounts shown below.
Twitter - @ualbanyvb
Instagram - @ualbanyvb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyVB