The West Gym was filled with shouts and cheers of the Bearcat faithful at the start of Binghamton University’s women’s volleyball home opener.
BU came out with a strong start against Colgate last Tuesday night. Little did the crowd know, they would be left in silence as the Raiders (4-6) overcame the Bearcats in a 3-1 win (21-25, 20-25, 25-16, 21-25). Binghamton (3-8) held the lead at the start of three games, but could only hold on to win one of them.
“Overall we played pretty well,” said BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama. “Obviously we could have played a little bit better, but Colgate was a pretty tough opponent.”
The Bearcats came in strong with a 14-9 lead in the first set. Sophomores Lindsey Mueller and Anna Lejina teamed together to bank in the offensive shots, but the Raiders went on a 5-1 tear to tie the game 15-15. After a neck-and-neck battle for the lead, Colgate posted a 6-2 run from 19-19 tie to win the game 25-21.
“We did start out pretty strong,” Kiriyama said. “I think just being our first home match and everything, the girls came out hard enough and executed pretty well … sort of overwhelm[ing] Colgate at the beginning there. Volleyball is a game of momentum and it just happened to go their way.”
The Raiders dominated the second set with a .444 hitting percentage and 16 kills whereas the Bearcats had a .150 percentage and eight kills. The Bearcats tried to come back from a deficit of eight (14-22) toward the end of the set, but would only get to bridge the gap to four points. Binghamton then lost the set 20-25.
Just when it seemed as if all hope was lost, the Bearcats were able to redeem themselves in the third set. The team went on 14-2 run against the Raiders and blew open the game with a 20-10 lead. BU senior Jaclyn Strader had three service aces and help with the effort. The Bearcats won the set 25-16, ending it with 17 kills.
“When she was back serving, I thought Jackie Strader … had a really nice string of serves there that ran through [Colgate],” Kiriyama said. “They couldn’t run their offense at all, and she got us out to a pretty good size lead there and we were able to sustain it there the rest of the time.”
In the fourth set, Binghamton held the game at 9-7 until Colgate posted an 8-0 run to take the lead 15-9. With only eight kills and six errors, the Bearcats had a .059 hitting percentage — less than a sixth of the percentage they posted in the third set. Nonetheless, green and white did not go down without a fight. Sophomore Mercedes Montford helped with the effort posting four solo blocks while the Bearcats came back to tie the game 21-21. The Raiders, however, struck back, adding four points to finish the set and win the game 25-21.
Raiders Katrina Zawojski posted a game-high 17 kills, while her teammate Casey Ritt followed behind with 15 kills. Zawojski also led her team with five blocks.
I thought their middle [blockers] were pretty strong and they gave us a hard time trying to stop them,” Kiriyama said. “They also just sort of divisified their offense moreso than we were able to.”
Lejina and sophomore Michelle McDonough each had the team-high 14 kills for the Bearcats, while senior Ashley Allen posted 12 kills. The team — despite its loss — stood its ground on defense, tallying 10 team blocks.
The Bearcats make their way into in the Buckeye State today to play in the Bowling Green/Best Western Invitational at 7 p.m. They are slated to play against Bowling Green, Hofstra and Rice.