ALBANY, N.Y. - The Great Danes hit the road to take on UMBC in their third conference match-up.
 
MATCH INFORMATION
 
UAlbany at UMBC
DATE: Sunday, October 6
TIME: 1 PM
SITE: Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena
RECORDS: UAlbany 5-10, 0-2 AE | UMBC 3-10, 2-0 AE
SERIES RECORD: 35-15, UAlbany leads
STATS: LiveStats
STREAM: AE.TV
TICKETS: Ticketmaster.com

*records as of 10.5
 
LAST WEEK IN REVIEW

• The Great Danes brought it home on Wednesday, October 2 with a dominating four-set win over Le Moyne as they hosted their Spread Respect night.
• Overall, redshirt-junior Shynelle Woroniuk led the team with 15 kills (3.75/set) and four service aces and freshman Maria Olga Siapani had 24 assists (6.0/set). On defense, Siapani tallied a double-double with 13 digs (3.25/set) and sophomore Campbell Robinson led with 5 blocks.

• 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).
• UAlbany defeated Le Moyne in a dominating four-set victory (Oct. 2).
• Shynelle Woroniuk leads the Great Danes with 3.52 kills per set and 3.88 points per set.
• On defense, senior Sthefany Carvalho has tallied a team-high 3.78 digs per set.
• Maria Olga Siapani has made a name for herself as the team's starting setter. Siapani leads the America East with 8.21 assists per set.
• Redshirt-sophomore Gabriella Karman has totaled double-digit blocks, leading the team with 40 total blocks.
• Siapani and Karman have tallied 15 service aces each to lead the Great Danes.

• 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.

• 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

• UMBC is 3-11 on the season so far.
• The Retrievers opened their season traveling to Indiana for the Stacey Clark Classic, where they fell to UC Davis (Aug. 30), #8 Purdue (Aug. 31), and Kansas State (Sep. 1).
• UMBC continued their road schedule at the Tru by Hilton Dayton Beavercreek Invitational and suffered straight-set losses to Bowling Green (Sep. 6), Wright State (Sep. 7), and Dayton (Sep. 8).
• The Retrievers returned home to face Lehigh (Sep. 14) and lost in straight sets before traveling to Maryland (Sep. 15) and again falling in three sets. 
• The following weekend at home, UMBC lost a five-set thriller to High Point (Sep. 20) but finally secured their first win of the season, defeating Princeton in five sets (Sep. 21).
• The team then lost to #1 Pittsburgh (Sep. 25) on the road but bounced back with a victory against NJIT (Sep. 29) in their opening America East match.
• UMBC added another win against Binghamton (Oct. 4) sweeping the match in straight sets.
• Mia Bulisic leads the team with 3.67 kills per set.
• Aysia Miller leads the defense with 3.77 digs per set.
• Mila Ilieva leads at the net with 42 total blocks.

• The Great Danes lead the all-time series, 35-15.
• UAlbany and UMBC faced off twice last season with each team winning their home matches.
• Opposite hitter Shynelle Woroniuk led the Great Danes in both matches with 14 kills in the Great Danes win (Oct. 8) and nine when the team visited UMBC (Nov. 12). 

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

UP NEXT: Following their match against UMBC, the Great Danes will head to Newark, NJ for a match against NJIT on Friday, October 11.
 
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