After dominating its previous matchups against Hartford and UMass Lowell, the Binghamton volleyball team fell short against Stony Brook and UMBC on the road this weekend, recording two consecutive America East (AE) losses.
BU (8-10, 2-3 AE) opened the weekend with a closely contested matchup against the Seawolves (5-14, 1-3 AE) on Friday night.
The Bearcats, who were coming off hard-fought wins against the Hawks and River Hawks, were outmatched in a four-set match against SBU. After grinding out the win in the first set, thanks to key plays by junior setter Sarah Ngo and company, Binghamton failed to pick up another win in the series.
Although the second series featured a 25-17 win in favor of the Seawolves, Binghamton refused to go down without a fight in the third and fourth sets. Both sets were neck-and-neck as both squads traded points throughout. Ultimately, the Bearcats failed to come out on top in two deflating losses, falling to Stony Brook, 25-23 and 26-24.
“We’re just working to get better each day and so we want to be able to convert on those [close] points and I think a lot of it is just confidence in those situations,” said BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama. “We just try to play one point at a time and not really care about the score too much and we hope we can play right through to the very end.”
Highlighting the night were the performances of freshman outside hitter Lauren Kornmann and Ngo. Kornmann led the way with 16 kills, five blocks and 18.5 points while Ngo recorded her sixth double-double of the year, posting 35 assists and 11 digs to fuel the well-rounded offense.
“Sarah [Ngo] works hard, she’s quick and gets to a lot of balls,” Kiriyama said. “She is able to get to the passes and does a nice job at putting up a very hittable set.”
Following the loss to Stony Brook, BU headed to Maryland to take on UMBC (11-5, 2-2 AE). Unlike their meeting with the Seawolves, the Bearcats seemed outmatched. Binghamton dropped all three set against the Retrievers on Sunday afternoon.
The first set featured a nine-point advantage for the Retrievers. The Bearcats were able to trim the margin to 20-14, but couldn’t put together a strong run to close the gap.
Following a lackluster opening performance, the Bearcats regrouped and found their focus in the second contest. After BU pulled within one point, though, the Retrievers went on a four-point run to close out the set.
The final set felt much like the first, as the Bearcats fell, 25-16, to third-place UMBC. Binghamton showcased an underwhelming .111 hitting percentage, just 25 assists and 16 errors in its 10th loss of the season.
“We didn’t have it from the get-go, [we were] just pretty flat going in,” Kiriyama said. “[We] just weren’t able to pick it up too much during the match. We tried a couple different lineups, nothing really worked out well.”
The Bearcats are scheduled to return home and take on Cornell on Tuesday in their final nonconference matchup. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the West Gym in Vestal, New York.