The Binghamton University volleyball team came out of this weekend winless in two important America East conference matches.
On Friday, the Bearcats lost in three straight sets against University of Maryland, Baltimore County at the RAC Arena in Baltimore, 25-15, 25-22, 25-15. The Bearcats (8-12, 0-3 AE) then traveled to Stony Brook University Sunday where they picked up their offense against the Seawolves but lost in five tough sets.
After making up some ground after an 0-5 start to the season, the Bearcats have dropped each of their first three America East conference matchups. Following a conference-opening Sept. 25 loss to University at Albany, the Bearcats continued to struggle against UMBC, failing to pin down the UMBC defense as the Retrievers out-blocked Binghamton 14-2 en route to a 3-0 sweep.
Junior middle blocker Alex Roland led BU with nine kills, while freshman outside hitter Kristin Hovie contributed with eight kills and seven digs of her own.
Freshman setter Amanda Dettmann tallied a team-high 21 assists, while sophomore libero Xiomara Ortiz collected 17 digs.
The Retrievers limited the Bearcats offense to an attack percentage of just .073 for the match.
“We had a tough time running our offense against their defense,” BU head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. “They blocked a lot of balls out there.”
Kiriyama complimented UMBC’s impressive defense, but added that his squad “will work on every aspect of the team’s offensive game from passing to hitting to try to combat their blocking.”
The Bearcats have had trouble playing the Retrievers as of late. Last season, they went 0-3 against them — the third loss coming in the semi-final of the 2010 America East tournament in Albany.
“The returning players have explained to the new players what happened last time we matched up against UMBC,” Kiriyama said. “We’re committed to working on areas that we need to improve on.”
The Bearcats will get another shot at UMBC on Oct. 30 at the West Gym, but the fate of their season may be decided in the matches prior.
But despite a poor outing this time around in Baltimore, the Bearcats showed some promise against a solid Stony Brook team on Sunday.
After falling in the first set 25-19, the Bearcats embarked on an impressive rally in the second when they found themselves trailing the Seawolves early, 8-2. BU’s defense, anchored by Ortiz’s match-high 25 digs, kept the set alive. Junior Iva Partaleva and freshman Jordan Snapp notched back-to-back kills to win the set for Binghamton 26-24 and tie the match at one game apiece.
The next two sets were a mirror image of the first as Binghamton dropped the third 25-19 before staying alive with another 25-24 victory in the fourth. In the fate-deciding fifth set, however, Stony Brook jumped out to an early 7-3 lead and never looked back. The Seawolves would take the final set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
With the loss, the Bearcats fell to 0-3 in conference play, but despite the squad’s early struggles, Kiriyama remained optimistic about Sunday’s performance.
“We did a nice job offensively,” Kiriyama said. “Alex Roland had a really nice game both blocking and hitting. Jordan Snapp also did a nice job and had a good game.”
Roland again led the team with a season-high 17 kills, while Snapp tallied 13 kills and a team-leading .321 attack percentage. Dettmann recorded 50 assists for the third time this season.
The Bearcats have 10 regular-season games left to play before the America East tournament — nine of them are matchups within the America East conference.
“We approach these games differently,” Kiriyama said regarding in-conference matches. “Our scouting is as complete as we can make it; we get a lot more notes on the other teams. We put a lot more emphasis and preparation on these America East games coming up.”
Binghamton is scheduled to face off against Providence College (6-13, 1-1 AE) at 1 p.m. this Sunday at the West Gym.