In its final match before America East conference play, the Binghamton volleyball team defeated Le Moyne in four sets on Tuesday afternoon. After winning the first set 25-16, BU dropped a tight second set, 25-22. However, the team bounced right back, dominantly winning the final two sets — 25-9 and 25-13 — to secure its ninth win.

“We took the opportunity tonight to get a couple of other people in and kind of mess around with a couple of different lineups,” head coach Allie Yaeger said. “Overall, [the match] was good.”

Binghamton (9-5) and Le Moyne (1-9) traded points to begin set one, with the score tied at 9-9 before either team went on a significant run. After this point, the Bearcats went on a 9-0 run to go up 18-9, with slide attacks from sophomore middle blocker Misa Dlouha playing a major role. The Dolphins responded with a 3-0 run to make it 19-12. However, this came too little, too late as BU closed out the set 25-16.

“With the five-one with [junior setter Lottie Scully] being in the front row with [Dlouha] for two rotations, the whole point is to try and feed [Dlouha] the ball as much as possible,” Yaeger said. “The best offensive hit that [Dlouha] comes through on is the slide. That’s one of our go-to plays.”

To start set two, Bearcats got off to a slow start with the Dolphins taking a 9-5 lead early in the set. Le Moyne maintained this lead as Binghamton’s defense struggled, allowing 18 kills and three service aces throughout the set. BU came up with a late comeback, cutting Le Moyne’s lead to one at 22-21 to force a timeout. Despite this, the Dolphins were able to close out the set on a 3-1 run for the 25-22 set victory.

“I just kind of wanted to try a couple other things out in the first couple sets,” Yaeger said. “We just couldn’t execute them, which was okay.”

The visiting Bearcats bounced back in set three, dominating in all aspects to regain the lead and win 25-9. Binghamton never trailed in the set, taking an early lead and preserving it the entire way. BU had a .520 hitting percentage in the set with 15 kills while its defense held Le Moyne to a -.115 hitting percentage.

In set four, Binghamton maintained its momentum from the set before. The visitors replicated their offensive dominance with 15 kills on a .538 hitting percentage en route to a 25-13 victory. The Bearcats also totaled six blocks and held the Dolphins to a -.036 hitting percentage, keeping Le Moyne from going on any significant runs. A kill from freshman right-side hitter Viktoria Dimitrova and a Le Moyne error sealed the match in four sets for BU.

“We went right back to our normal five-one with the regular starters in the third and fourth sets,” Yaeger said. “They were able to dominate and completely take over, which I knew they would.”

Three Bearcats finished with double-digit kills. Fifth-year outside hitter Tsvetelina Ilieva led the way with 24 kills, her second straight match with more than 20 kills. Sophomore outside hitters Ella Schabort and Dimitrova each had 10 kills. In addition, going into conference play after nearly five weeks on the road, Yaeger asserted that the team is excited to play in front of the home crowd and bring home a win.

“The girls are so excited to be home this weekend,” Yaeger said. “They can’t wait. It’s all they talk about. Hopefully, we can put on a good show for the home crowd. We’re excited to get conference play started. It’s what we work so hard up until this point for.”

Binghamton will return home for the first time since Aug. 31 to take on Albany in its AE opener on Friday, Sept. 27. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.