Judging from the Binghamton volleyball team’s 1-14 start to the season, a postseason appearance in 2014 seemed unlikely. But after a successful conference campaign, BU (9-18, 7-5 America East) achieved just that — the Bearcats will carry the two seed into the America East Championship Tournament. Binghamton is set to travel to New Hampshire to take on Albany in the opening round of the playoffs.
Three Bearcats earned end-of-the-year awards on Thursday night, proving just how high they’ve jumped since August. Freshman middle hitter Alexis LaGoy was named America East Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Bearcat in program history to earn the accolade. She reaped in Rookie of the Week awards three times during her debut campaign.
“As a freshman coming in, she has played like a veteran,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “She has contributed right away. She is a very determined player.”
Binghamton also saw two players garner First-Team All-Conference honors in senior setter Amanda Dettmann and sophomore outside hitter Allison Hovie. Hovie earned Player of the Week once in 2014, on Oct. 20, while Dettmann was named Setter of the Week twice in October.
“It is tremendous accomplishment,” Kiriyama said. “I think [Dettmann and Hovie] have definitely earned the award. They have been key players for us throughout the season.”
Drawing on that momentum, BU will hope to impress against the Great Danes tonight, against whom they’ve competed in four of their nine AE tournament appearances.
Most recently, the teams battled in the championship round of the 2012 tournament, through which BU took its most recent crown. Four current Bearcats were a part of that successful run, with Dettmann highlighting the bunch by taking home All-Tournament team honors. On the flip side, three current Great Danes contributed to that 2012 match.
In regular-season play, 2014 marks the first season in program history that the Bearcats swept the Great Danes.
In their first match in September, Albany and the visiting Bearcats battled in five sets before BU prevailed. Binghamton fielded a strong defense — recording 100 digs in the match — while receiving strong offensive play from Hovie and LaGoy. Hovie contributed a team-high 19 kills while LaGoy registered a .346 hitting percentage with 11 kills.
The two teams’ second matchup saw BU defeat the Great Danes in four sets. Three Bearcats — Dettmann, LaGoy and junior outside hitter Megan Burgess — received AE weekly honors for their performances. Burgess banged home 18 kills, Dettmann dished out 48 assists and LaGoy connected on eight terminations.
A tremendous strength for BU has been its balanced attack. The team does not rely on one single hitter to carry the offense load on a nightly basis. In their final regular-season contest, three Bearcats broke double digits in kills.
“It’s going to be important that we get contributions from a lot of different hitters,” Kiriyama said. “That way they can’t focus on any one player — they’ll have to spread out their defense a little bit. We don’t have such a dominant hitter that we just focus on one girl.”
A key to the matchup against Albany will be strong play from the middle hitter position. Strong offensive play by the middle hitter would prevent Albany from stacking the block — which creates kill opportunities for all of the hitters — while a stout defensive effort would help shut down the opponent’s top hitter. In that grain, LaGoy and sophomore middle hitter Bianca Anderson provided steady offensive production in the regular season finale.
“We need production out of our middle and I thought Alexis LaGoy did a nice job,” Kiriyama said. “She’s been pretty steady for us all year. And Bianca Anderson had a nice game against UMBC, both in blocking and in offense.”
First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m. today at Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, N.H.
-E.Jay Zarett contributed reporting to this article.