The Binghamton volleyball team swept UMBC in its Sunday afternoon Homecoming match, propelling the Bearcats (6-16, 4-2 America East) into a tie for second place in conference standings.
Through their performances this weekend, three Bearcats garnered America East weekly honors: Sophomore outside hitter Allison Hovie earned Player of the Week with 12 kills and 16 digs, middle hitter Alexis LaGoy was named Rookie of the Week after recording a .533 hitting percentage and senior Amanda Dettmann shared Setter of the Week honors — her fifth time earning the award – with New Hampshire’s Taylor Dunklau. Dettmann finished Sunday with 34 sets and 14 digs.
“I thought our girls played hard and they played well — they kept it up through all three games,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “[We] had a couple of lapses there, but they managed to recover pretty quick after those.”
The first set saw both teams come out of the gates red hot on the offensive end, featuring a combined 34 kills and a lead of no greater than three on either side. The score was tied at 23 before the Retrievers (9-10, 3-3 AE) committed back-to-back kill errors, handing BU a 25-23 victory.
In the second set, Binghamton took control after 10 unforced errors put the Retrievers in a hole from which they could not escape. BU finished the set with a .370 hitting percentage, compared to UMBC’s .028 hitting clip and match-low 13 points. A kill by senior outside hitter Kristin Hovie sealed the deal for the Bearcats: A 25-13 set victory sent the teams into the intermission with BU up 2-0 in the game.
Following intermission, the Bearcats were relentless and built an early 8-3 lead over their visitors. After a timeout, UMBC scored the next five points to tie the score at eight. Both teams shared the lead with the decisive moments approaching, and UMBC seemed poised to force a fourth set, cutting the lead to one. But BU bore down after a pair of kills by Allison Hovie and finished off the set, 25-21, to treat the home crowd to a victory.
“We love playing at home,” Dettmann said. “We were on the road for so long this season in the beginning — away for two months — so any time we get to play at home it’s a huge advantage for us.”
The Bearcats held the potent combination of redshirt junior middle hitter Krystal Mlemchukwu and junior outside hitter Sherelle Walker, UMBC’s leading hitters, to lackluster hitting percentages of .078 and .062, respectively.
“We knew they’re a strong hitting team — they can get up there and bang some balls,” Kiriyama said. “We knew they were going to get a lot of kills and we just wanted to set up a decent block and try to mitigate the damages. But I thought our defense played well. We dug quite a few balls and kept the ball in play.”
Next up for Binghamton is a Friday evening matchup against conference-rival Albany. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at the West Gym.