Trying to stay in the hunt for the last playoff berth, the Binghamton volleyball team swept Hartford on Friday night. The Bearcats (7-18, 5-6 America East) stand two games behind Albany, which currently occupies the fourth and final America East tournament spot.

“It was a huge win,” Senior hitter and co-captain Grace Vickers said. “[We and Hartford] were at 4-6 and we are both two games out of playoffs. It was a huge game and it’s senior weekend. Every game is a season for us right now.”

Vickers dominated throughout the first set, scoring three of Binghamton’s first five points via kills. The score would then be tied six times before another Vickers kill put the Bearcats up, 12-11.

Binghamton, aided by four more kills from Vickers, would not look back in the set, taking a 25-19 victory.

“Their block was slow,” Vickers said when discussing her tremendous first set play. “I had scouted them and seen that and I was taking advantage of that. The other hitters did a good job of being a threat and making the blockers wait a second before they could leave.”

The second set saw Hartford jump out to an early 8-4 lead. The Bearcats, aided by a multitude of Hartford errors went on a 5-2 run to cut the lead to one, eventually tying the score at 13.

The score would stay tied until a kill error by Bearcats sophomore Shannon Kirkpatrick gave Hartford the lead. The Bearcats would again tie the score at 20. From that point on, the Hovie sisters took control of the set. Allie, a freshman, and Kristin, a junior, combined for four kills to give the Bearcats a 25-23 set victory.

Binghamton never gave Hartford a chance in the third, jumping out to a 13-6 lead and never looking back. A service ace by senior Xiomara Ortiz pushed the lead to 16-7. From that point on Hartford would only score two more points. The Bearcats easily took the third and final set, 25-9.

“Our serving was a lot better today.” BU coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “We served tough and kept them off balance. Our blocking was also much better. You always hate going into extra games and it was good that we could close it out in three.”

The Bearcats return to action today against Providence in the final home match of 2013. First serve is set for 3 p.m. in the West Gym.