ALBANY, N.Y. - The Great Danes hit the road for a one-match week against New Hampshire in Durham.
 
MATCH INFORMATION
 
UAlbany at New Hampshire
DATE: Friday, November 1
TIME: 7:00 PM
SITE: Lundhold Gymnasium - Durham, N.H.
RECORDS: UAlbany 9-12, 3-4 AE | New Hampshire 13-8, 4-2 AE
SERIES RECORD: 33-30, New Hampshire leads
STATS: LiveStats
STREAM: AE.TV

*records as of 10.31
 
LAST WEEK IN REVIEW

• The Great Danes hosted Binghamton (Oct. 25) and UMBC (Oct. 27) last week.
• UAlbany fell to Binghamton in three sets but bounced back with a thrilling five-set victory over UMBC. 
• Overall, graduate student Elisavet Papageorgiou led the team with 2.75 kills per set and freshman Maria Olga Siapani had 6.63 assists per set and four service aces. On defense, redshirt-sophomore Brooke Malek tallied 2.38 digs per set and sophomore sophomore Campbell Robinson led with five blocks.

GREAT DANE REWIND

• UAlbany holds a 9-12 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).
• UAlbany defeated Le Moyne in a dominating four-set victory (Oct. 2).
• The Great Danes started their road trip with a match against UMBC (Oct. 6) and fell in five sets.
• The Purple and Gold swept NJIT in Newark in their first conference win of the season (Oct. 11).
• The Great Danes had their first undefeated week of the season with a four-set win over Siena (Oct. 16) and a straight-set win over Bryant (Oct. 18). 
• UAlbany fell to Binghamton (Oct. 25) in three sets but bounced back with a thrilling five-set victory over UMBC (Oct. 27). 
• Shynelle Woroniuk leads the Great Danes with 3.55 kills per set and 3.94 points per set.
• On defense, redshirt-sophomore Brooke Malek has tallied a team-high 3.84 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.
• Redshirt-sophomore Gabriella Karman has totaled double-digit blocks, leading the team with 52 total blocks.
• Siapani leads the Great Danes with 26 service aces for the Great Danes.

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 NEW HAMPSHIRE

• The New Hampshire Wildcats are 13-8 on the season so far.
• In non-conference tournament play, New Hampshire competed in the LSU Invitational, Harvard Invitational, and Texas A&M Invitational. They picked up wins over Maryland, Merrimack, Stonehill, and Louisiana while dropping close matches to LSU, Troy, Harvard, Texas A&M, and Temple.
• In their home Holly Young Invitational, the Wildcats defeated CCSU (Sep. 20) and Brown (Sep. 21) but fell to UConn (Sep. 19).
• They added another home win against Merrimack (Sep. 24) and swept Le Moyne (Sep. 27) before picking up a straight-set victory on the road against UAlbany (Sep. 29).
• After a home sweep of NJIT (Oct. 6) and High Point (Oct. 9), the Wildcats were narrowly defeated by Bryant (Oct. 11) in five sets. They rebounded by sweeping Binghamton (Oct. 13) at home but later suffered a close five-set loss to UMBC (Oct. 20) on the road.
• The Wildcats capped off this stretch with a commanding sweep over NJIT (Oct. 27) in Newark, N.J.
• Hannah Serbousek leads the Wildcats with 2.56 kills per set.
• Avery LePore leads the team with 3.71 digs per set.
• Kelly Kaufman leads the America East with 105 blocks.

SERIES AGAINST THE WILDCATS

• The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 33-30.
• UAlbany faced off against New Hampshire twice last season and UHN was able to take two four-set victories in both matchups.
• The Great Danes and New Hampshire met earlier this season in Albany where the Wildcats won in straight sets.
• Outside hitter Shynelle Woroniuk led among all hitters with 13 kills in the September 29 match.

AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK

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

UP NEXT: The Great Danes stay on the road to face LIU on Tuesday, November 5, and then head home to face NJIT for Senior Night on Friday, November 8.
 
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