After enjoying a four-match winning streak, the Binghamton University volleyball team hit a road bump this weekend at the Columbia Invitational in New York City.
The Bearcats (7-9) dropped their first three matches of the tournament, falling 3-0 to host Columbia University, 3-2 to St. John’s University and 3-0 to University of Iowa before recovering with a 3-0 victory over St. Francis College on Saturday.
“We were up and down a little bit, not really consistent, but we had some good moments there,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “We were playing some tough competition so it was good. Overall, it was a good effort, [just] wish we could’ve played a little bit better.”
After a dismal 0-5 start to the season, Binghamton (7-9) entered the weekend having won six of its last seven matches. With an opening loss to Columbia (6-4) on Friday, though, Binghamton saw the tides begin to turn.
A slew of errors hindered the Bearcats in their opening match against the Lions. As a team, BU accumulated 17 attack errors, 11 service errors and three blocking errors as its offense struggled to get rolling.
A hitting percentage of just .103 in the Bearcats’ first set led to a quick 25-13 defeat, and though BU battled to outhit the Lions in the second, the Columbia defense kept the Bearcats from victory. The Lions notched a combined 43 digs in the opening two sets, and took the second set 25-23.
In the third, a .406 hitting percentage propelled Columbia to a 25-19 victory over the Bearcats, bringing their four-game winning streak to a halt as the Lions took the match 3-0.
Sophomore middle hitter Grace Vickers led the Bearcats with a match-high 12 kills and a pair of a service aces.
Freshman setter Amanda Dettmann tallied 30 assists, while sophomore libero Xiomara Ortiz and senior Julie Chambers collected 12 digs each.
In Friday’s nightcap, after taking two hard-fought sets from St. John’s 26-24 and 25-21, the Bearcats sat one set shy of taking the match. On the verge of defeat, however, the Red Storm (9-8) staged an impressive comeback, grabbing the next three sets, 25-21, 25-17 and 15-9, and the match, 3-2.
Reigning America East Player of the Week, junior outside hitter Iva Partaleva, led the Bearcats with 18 kills. Vickers contributed 13 kills of her own, posting a .375 hitting percentage.
Dettmann collected a match-high 46 assists, while Ortiz tallied a match-best 17 digs.
The Bearcats opened the second day with a 3-0 loss to Iowa (10-3) and watched their losing streak skid to three games. The BU offense again seemed unable to get going, as the team posted a .104 hitting percentage for the match.
The Bearcats were swept for the second time that weekend, dropping three straight sets to the Hawkeyes 25-16, 25-20 and 25-16.
Partaleva again led the squad with a match-high nine kills.
“She gets better each week,” Kiriyama said of Partaleva. “She’s sort of taken it upon herself to be one of our offensive weapons. She’s gotten a lot more aggressive and I think her confidence has gotten a lot greater too as she’s gone on through the season here.”
Binghamton finally found its stride in the tournament’s finale later that day when the team swept St. Francis (1-14) in three consecutive sets.
In the opening set, eight kills from Partaleva ignited a BU run that put the team ahead early 15-4. With the offense seemingly awoken, the Bearcats stormed to a 25-16 victory on the back of a .400 hitting percentage.
As the offense continued to roll in the second tallying a hitting percentage of .350 and putting down 18 kills, Binghamton took the set 25-20.
In the third set, BU held the Terriers to a .059 hitting percentage en route to a 25-16 victory. With the win, the Bearcats took the match 3-0 to pick up their first victory of the tournament.
“I feel like we’re still a long ways off to being ready for conference [play], but we’ve come a long way since the start of the season,” Kiriyama said.
Partaleva helped to propel the team to victory with a match-high 17 kills, while Vickers added 10 of her own.
Dettmann collected 36 more assists and led the Bearcats, alongside of Ortiz, with 11 digs.
Binghamton is scheduled to compete in its final non-conference match at 7 p.m. Friday at Cornell University.