With conference play in full swing, the Binghamton University volleyball team looks to extend its winning streak this weekend, as they are set to take on University of Hartford today and Stony Brook University on Sunday.
The Bearcats (7-11, 2-1 America East) are coming off a 2-0 weekend, snapping a 1-5 funk over the previous six games. For the Bearcats, it was an important swing in momentum.
‘I think the two wins are important. Those were our first two wins in the conference,’ said Binghamton head coach Glenn Kiriyama. ‘It does give us some incentive going into these matches this weekend. But we know that each of these teams is dangerous, so we’re just going to try to prepare as best we can.’
The Bearcats will travel to Connecticut for the first game of the weekend. The Hartford Hawks are coming off a bad start to their season where they lost their first three America East Conference matches and are now sitting in last place.
The Hawks started their conference schedule against University of New Hampshire. Despite securing one set, the Hawks could not pull off a win. Their losing streak continued when they were matched up against Providence College and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This time, the Hawks did not even pick up one set from either of these two matches.
The Hartford volleyball team’s record prior to the start of conference play was 5-12. Its overall winning percentage is now at .250 with a .000 record in conference games.
Hartford will be going into this Friday’s match with a burning desire to notch at least one conference win, currently stuck in a six-game losing streak. Over the long stretch though, things have looked even worse. The Hawks are 1-73 in conference since 2004, with their last win coming in 2007.
The Hawks’ past matchups show that the Bearcats may pose a challenge for them. In last season’s conference matches, the Bearcats and the Hawks met twice, and Binghamton snatched both matches quickly in straight sets.
Despite last year’s success against the Hawks, Kiriyama acknowledges areas that still need improvement.
‘We just have to try to improve on those areas that were weak this last weekend, which were mainly our serve-receive and our blocking,’ he said.
The Bearcats’ away games continue as they travel to Long Island to take on the Stony Brook Seawolves.
Stony Brook is currently tied with Binghamton for second place in the America East, with two wins and a loss. Albany currently sits in first place, notching wins in all three of their conference games.
The Seawolves started their season strong, defeating Providence 3-0, but could only take one set in their loss against New Hampshire. The Seawolves bounced back to beat UMBC in straight sets.
Although Binghamton and Stony Brook have the same conference winning percentage, Binghamton has a slight edge with the overall percentage. The Bearcats will enter this match with a winning percentage of .689 while Stony Brook trails slightly behind with a percentage of .668.
The matchup between these two teams last year was split evenly. The Bearcats swept the Seawolves when they first met in 2009 in the West Gym. However, the Seawolves returned the favor when the two teams met up later in the season, in Stony Brook, with a sweep of its own.
Last weekend, the Bearcats rallied to beat New Hampshire and Providence in four sets each. They are looking to extend their winning streak, but know that there will be challenges.
‘Both of the teams that we play this weekend have got a lot of new players,’ Kiriyama said. ‘I think the challenge against these teams is just going to be trying to stop their offense ‘ play better defense against them.’
The third weekend of conference matches is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. tonight at University of Hartford. The team will then travel to Stony Brook University for Sunday’s match, which is set to start at 1 p.m.