In its second match against Albany in America East conference play on Friday night, the Binghamton volleyball team’s road trip ended with its second-straight sweep of the season. The Bearcats gathered momentum to pull away late in each set, earning their fourth win in conference play.
“I’m really happy that we were able to do it in three on the road,” said Binghamton head coach Allie Yaeger. “Right now, across the conference, everyone is winning at home and losing on the road, so I feel like we’re kind of the first team to break that trend that’s going on with like the top-five teams.”
Set one began with Albany (9-12, 3-4 AE) having a slight edge, going up 5-1 in the early going. While the Bearcats (14-9, 4-2 AE) kept things close, they trailed until the middle of the set. The momentum began to shift courtesy of consecutive kills from sophomore middle blocker Misa Dlouha and sophomore outside hitter Ella Schabort tied the match at 15-15. Later in the frame, with Albany leading 18-17, the Bearcats went on a 4-0 run to go up 21-18. The visitors held the lead from that point on, closing out the set with another 4-0 run to take set one 25-19.
“Albany played with a lot of passion,” Yaeger said. “[Albany] worked really hard last night, and it showed in our scores early on in both the first and second sets, and when they started to come back in the third set.”
The start of the second set was characterized by back and forth from the SUNY rivals. After the Great Danes won the first point, BU and Albany traded 3-0 runs to put the score at 4-3 in favor of the hosts. Not long after, the Great Danes began to pull away, scoring five straight points to go up 11-7, forcing a BU timeout. Binghamton found its spark late in the set with a kill from Dlouha leading to a 3-0 run to cut Albany’s lead to 19-17. The Bearcats continued to put on the pressure with a 7-0 run to force match point. A kill from Dlouha sealed the set for BU at 25-21.
“I’m really happy that the girls fought even being down the way we were in the first and second set,” Yaeger said. “We got to a point where we just kind of played error-free volleyball, and we let Albany make mistakes.”
Binghamton did not let up in set three as it looked for the sweep. The Bearcats went on a 3-0 run to begin the set, led by a pair of kills from fifth-year outside hitter Tsvetelina Ilieva. After the 6-6 point, BU began to cement its lead, going on a 5-1 run to go up 11-7, forcing the Great Danes to burn a timeout. The visitors continued to outpace the hosts, nearly going up double digits in the set at 22-13, forcing Albany’s second timeout of the set. Albany, however, did not go down without a fight, going on a 4-0 run coming out of the timeout to make it 22-17. Ultimately, it was too little too late as BU earned the 25-19 set win to complete the 3-0 sweep.
“When we almost had them finished, [Albany] was very feisty, and they wouldn’t go away, which is a really good thing to have as a team,” Yaeger said. “They played defense against us. They were very, very scrappy, so we had to rise to their level of intensity.”
Leading the way on offense for BU were Ilieva and Dlouha with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. With her parents flying in from the Czech Republic for the match, Dlouha hit .526 to mark her second-straight game with double-digit kills and a hitting percentage greater than .500.
“[Dlouha] did a great job last night,” Yaeger said. “I love being able to look at [junior setter/right side hitter Lottie Scully] and say, ‘keep setting Misha the ball again.’ Her parents flew in from the Czech Republic yesterday. They were there to watch her play and that was really special for her.”
Binghamton will conclude its two-game road trip against Bryant on Friday, Nov. 1. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, Rhode Island.