The Binghamton University volleyball team split an important pair of conference matches this weekend. They defeated the University of New Hampshire 3-1 on Friday before losing 3-2 to University of Hartford on Sunday.
Coming off an impressive home victory against Providence College last Monday, the Bearcats (10-13, 2-4 America East) notched a second straight win on Friday against the conference-leading Wildcats (6-16, 5-1 AE) in four sets.
“We played hard and fought well,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “We executed well, especially at the end of the game.”
The Bearcats extended their winning streak against UNH to four matches. The match was the Wildcats’ first conference loss of the season.
Sophomore middle hitter Grace Vickers led the offense with 11 kills and a team-high .357 attack percentage, and sophomore outside hitter Xiomara Ortiz boosted the team’s defense with 20 digs. Freshman outside hitter Annelot Nieuwenhuis added a game-high 14 kills.
Kiriyama noted that recent improvements in the team’s passing game led to a better offensive performance.
“Our hitting was better overall against New Hampshire, which led to our success,” he added.
On Sunday, however, the Bearcats faced a tough opponent in University of Hartford (11-12, 2-4 AE). BU lost the first two sets 21-25 and 18-25 respectively, but battled back to tie the match with wins in the next two sets 29-27 and 25-23.
Though BU would lose the fifth set 12-15, the team’s third set victory against the Hawks was the Bearcats’ longest of the season up to this point and it proved to be a defining moment for BU despite the match loss.
“I thought [the team] did the same thing in New Hampshire when the games were close, and we ended up winning most of the close ones,” Kiriyama said.
Down 14-11 in the third set, the Bearcats began their comeback with a pair of kills from Vickers and junior middle blocker Alex Roland, which tied the match at 15. The prolonged set would be tied six times before it was finally decided in Binghamton’s favor.
The Bearcats fought off four match points to hold off the defeat, and two clutch kills by Roland won the set for BU, 29-27.
“It was a pretty intense end of the third game,” Kiriyama said. “It could’ve gone either way, but I was glad to see them fight and not give up. That’s the signature of this team: they don’t give up.”
Roland had a career day in Hartford, with a team-high 22 kills and a .340 attack percentage.
“Alex was one of the bright spots for us on Sunday,” Kiriyama said. “She came ready to play, we utilized her as much as we could and she did a nice job against their block.”
Ortiz again posted a team-high 21 digs, and Vickers registered 16 kills and a .323 attack percentage.
The Bearcats will play host to Syracuse University tomorrow. Looking ahead, Kiriyama said that he hopes to see more consistency from his team.
“We’d like to iron out some of our offense and get our outsides working better,” he said. “Our middles seem to have been inconsistent this year, so we have to work on executing our offense a lot better.”
The match against Syracuse will be Binghamton’s first non-conference game since its victory at Cornell University on Sept. 23.
The Bearcats’ match against the Orange will be the first time the teams have met since early last season.
Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. tomorrow night in the West Gym.