The Binghamton volleyball team extended its winning streak to three games, pulling out a five-set win against Bryant on Friday afternoon. The Bearcats relied on an all-round effort from fifth-year outside hitter Tsvetelina Ilieva, sophomore outside hitter Ella Schabort and sophomore middle blocker Misa Dlouha to capture a crucial road win in America East play.

“I’ll take the win,” said Binghamton head coach Allie Yaeger. “I’ll take it, and I’ll run with it. A road win is huge, especially against a good Bryant team.”

Binghamton (15-9, 5-2 AE) went down early in the first set as Bryant (18-8, 4-4 AE) jumped out to a 9-4 lead. The middle of the set saw more of the same as the Bearcats continued to play from being, going down 18-14. While BU cut the lead to 23-21 at one point, with a 3-0 run, it was not enough as the Bulldogs took set one 25-22.

“It was all about the serve and the serve-receive game,” Yaeger said. “[Bryant] just served really, really well last night. When we were in system, [junior setter Lottie Scully] was able to set whoever she wanted to, we were very dominant.”

To begin the second set, BU used an early 5-0 run to go up 8-4. Timely kills from Schabort and Ilieva allowed the Bearcats to keep the lead at 18-15. While Bryant stayed within striking distance, Binghamton pulled away late in the second, ending the set on a 3-0 run with two kills from Ilieva and a kill from freshman right side hitter Viktoria Dimitrova, winning the set 25-19.

“We were we had open nets,” Yaeger said, “We had one one-on-ones, and [Bryant] couldn’t handle our offense. When we are in system, our offense is a very hard thing to stop.”

The Bearcats maintained the momentum going into the third set, taking a 9-2 lead. Despite going down early, Bryant chipped away throughout the set, using a 3-0 lead to cut the deficit to 16-12. Not long after, another four-point run allowed the Bulldogs to make it a two-point game. However, that was all the points Bryant got as BU capped off the set win with a 6-0 run to take the set 25-17 and go up two sets to one.

“However, when we were not in system and we struggled in serve receive and couldn’t pass the ball, that’s always when Bryant really took advantage of us and was able to put a lot of points on the board,” Yaeger said.

In the penultimate set, after Binghamton went up 4-1, Bryant utilized a 4-0 run to go up 5-4. The Bulldogs did not give up the lead after this point, despite BU tying the game at 17 late in the set with a 4-0 run. However, Bryant would not let the Bearcats regain the lead, prevailing in the set 25-22.

“Going into the fifth set, we knew what Bryant looked like,” Yaeger said. “We knew what we were going to get from [Bryant]. We just had to win the server pass game, and we did.”

In the fifth and final set to break the tiebreaker, the Bearcats went up 6-1 to gain a significant advantage. Bryant made an effort to claw back, cutting it to 10-8. However, BU would not relinquish its lead, going on a 5-2 run to pull out a 15-10 set win along with the match victory.

“[Bryant] served really well, but we were probably more in system than they were,” Yaeger said. “I really felt that we were more aggressive in the fifth set.”

Ilieva led the way with her ninth double-double of the year, tallying 18 kills and 10 digs. Schabort added a double-double of her own with 13 kills and 16 digs. Lastly, Dlouha tallied 12 kills with a .600 hitting percentage, playing error-free volleyball with zero attack errors. Scully made this possible with 42 assists on the evening.

“We really worked hard the last couple weeks to get [Schabort] better, to get her more confident,” Yaeger said. “I’m so proud of her for putting on that performance. We couldn’t have done what we did last night without her.”

Binghamton will return home for its final two-game home stand starting on Friday, Nov. 8 against UMBC. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.