ALBANY, N.Y. - The Great Danes take a break from conference matchups to host Le Moyne in their Spread Respect night.
 
MATCH INFORMATION
 
UAlbany vs. Le Moyne
DATE: Wednesday, October 2
TIME: 6 PM
SITE: PE Gym
RECORDS: UAlbany 4-10, 0-2 AE | Le Moyne 1-10, 0-0 NEC
SERIES RECORD: 0-0, first meeting
STATS: LiveStats
STREAM: AE.TV

*records as of 10.1
 
LAST WEEK IN REVIEW

• The Great Danes opened conference play with a match at Binghamton on Friday, September 27. UAlbany fought but fell in three sets to the Bearcats. 
• On Sunday, September 29, the Purple and Gold hosted New Hampshire for their first home conference match of the season. UNH captured the win in straight sets.
• Overall, redshirt-junior Shynelle Woroniuk led the weekend with 23 kills (3.83/set) and senior Zosia Szczotkiewicz had 28 assists (4.67/set). On defense, redshirt-sophomore Brooke Malek tallied 22 digs (3.67/set) and redshirt-sophomore Gabriella Karman led with 6 blocks.

GREAT DANE REWIND

• UAlbany holds a 4-10 record on the season.
• The Great Danes started 2024 with a three-set sweep against NDSU (Aug. 30) but fell to UIC (Aug. 30) and FGCU (Aug. 31) at the FGCU Hilton Garden Inn Fort Myers Classic.
• The Purple and Gold hosted the UAlbany Invitational and went 2-1 with back-to-back wins against Iona (Sept. 6) and FDU (Sept. 7). 
• UAlbany battled at the Dog Pound Challenge (Sept. 13-14) but fell in three matches.
• At the UniWyo Invite (Sept. 20-21), the Great Danes fell to Utah (Sept. 20) and Wyoming (Sept. 20) but went on to sweep Coppin State in three sets (Sept. 21).
• In their first conference week of the season, the Great Danes fell in three sets to Binghamton (Sept. 27) and New Hampshire (Sept. 29).
• Shynelle Woroniuk leads the Great Danes with 3.50 kills per set and 3.80 points per set.
• On defense, senior Sthefany Carvalho has tallied a team-high 3.83 digs per set.
• Maria Olga Siapani has made a name for herself as the team's starting setter. Siapani leads the America East with 8.39 assists per set and leads the team with 14 service aces.
• Redshirt-sophomore Gabriella Karman has totaled double-digit blocks, leading the team with 36 total blocks.

BUILDING ON GREATNESS

• The Great Danes welcome six newcomers with eleven returning student-athletes. 
• Senior Zosia Szczotkiewicz returns after being named the America East Setter of the Year and America East Second Team All-Conference.
• Junior Anna Myhal and graduate student Elisavet Papageorgiou both return after having been the only Great Danes to start all 25 matches in 2023. 
• Redshirt-junior Shynelle Woroniuk and Sthefany Carvalho add valuable experience as team leaders in points and digs as an outside hitter and the team's libero, respectively.
• Among the newcomers is mid-year transfer Dora Filipovic who joined the team after two successful seasons in the NJCAA.
• UAlbany added five freshmen: Maria Olga Siapani, Kiki Provatas, Kasia Barletta, Nia Gibson, and Sabrina Kinkaid.

INTERNATIONAL APPEAL

• The UAlbany coaching staff is constantly at work to represent different cultures and countries on their roster each year.
• The 2024 roster traveled a total of 43,861 miles from their homes to UAlbany.
• Eight different countries and five different states within the USA are included on the 17-person roster.
  • United States
    • New York: Kasia Barletta, Sabrina Kinkaid
    • Texas: Tori Wilson, Kendall Harris
    • Maryland: Nia Gibson
    • Florida: Gabriella Karman, Kiki Provatas
    • Ohio: Campbell Robinson
  • Canada: Brooke Malek, Shynelle Woroniuk
  • Poland: Emilia Kuzniar, Zosia Szczotkiewicz
  • Brazil: Sthefany Carvalho
  • Greece: Elisavet Papageorgiou
  • Ukraine: Anna Myhal
  • Cyprus: Maria Olga Siapani
  • Croatia: Dora FIlipovic

ABOUT LE MOYNE

• The Le Moyne Dolphins hold a 1-10 record heading into Wednesday's match.
• The Dolphins opened their season hosting the Salt City Invitational with losses to Lafayette College (Aug. 30), Canisius University (Aug. 30), and NJIT (Aug. 31), all in straight sets.
• At the Penn Invitational, the Dolphins faced Manhattan University (Sep. 13) and suffered another loss. They bounced back to secure their only win against Morgan State University (Sep. 13) in a hard-fought five-set match. The following day, they lost to the University of Pennsylvania (Sep. 14).
• On the road, Le Moyne was defeated by Syracuse University (Sep. 19) and Cornell University (Sep. 20) before returning home, where they suffered losses to Niagara University (Sep. 21) and Binghamton University (Sep. 24).
• In their final home match before conference play, the Dolphins lost to the University of New Hampshire (Sep. 27).
• Jordyn Hamlin leads the Dolphins offense with 2.31 kills per set.
• Haley Gerken leads with 4.84 assists per set and 11 service aces.
• On defense, Brooke Menke leads with 2.58 digs per set.
• Kayla Anstett leads at the net with 19 blocks

SERIES AGAINST THE DOLPHINS

•  This will be the first meeting between the Great Danes and the Dolphins.

AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK

• Wednesday:
  • Le Moyne at UAlbany, 6 PM
  • NJIT at FDU, 7 PM
• Friday:
  • Binghamton at UMBC, 7 PM
• Sunday:
  • Bryant at Binghamton, 1 PM
  • UAlbany at UMBC, 1 PM
  • NJIT at New Hampshire, 1 PM

UP NEXT: Following their match against Le Moyne, the Great Danes will hit the road as they visit Baltimore for a match against UMBC on Sunday, October 6.
 
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