CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Stony Brook's Jackie Ahlers (Stony Point, N.Y./St. John's) received this week's America East Volleyball Player of the Week award after leading the Seawolves to a 2-0 week in America East action and lifting Stony Brook into sole possession of first-place. Freshman setter Lindsey Mueller (West Bend West, Wis./West Bend) from Binghamton earned the Rookie of the Week, and UNH's senior setter Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) received the top setter of the week for the week ending October 21. Click here for full release.
Ahlers totaled 30 kills this week (5.0 per game) in two sweeps of America East foe Hartford, hitting a combined .364. She totaled a match-high 13 kills, hitting .429 in the Seawolves' 3-0 sweep on Friday. She came back on Sunday to total a match-best 15 kills in Stony Brook's second consecutive victory over the Hawks. Ahlers finished the week with 5.25 points per game leading the conference. The senior has now registered at least 13 kills in every Seawolves match this season. this is the third player of the week award from the conference this year for Ahlers.
Mueller played all 11 games in three matches this week for the Bearcats, recording double-doubles in both victories over UMBC. She averaged 12.14 assists per games and 1.29 blocks per games. Mueller led Binghamton with 43 assists and 13 digs, while also adding four assisted blocks in Sunday's sweep over UMBC in Baltimore. In Friday's win, she had a match-high 42 assists, 12 digs and five blocks. Overall, Mueller posted 132 assists in 11 games this week, for 12.00 per game. This is the freshman's first rookie accolade this season, although she did garner setter of the week honors earlier this year.
Uitti, the conference leader in assists, helped quarterback the Wildcats to a 3-0 victory over Maine. The sophomore setter tallied 40 assists and 12 digs, for 13.33 assists per game and 4.0 digs per game. Recently, Uitti surpassed Anne Davis and moved into second on the all-time assists list at UNH with 1,794. Current UNH assistant coach Stacy Barnett holds the all-time mark with 3,977. Uitti's 942 assists this season is already the seventh-best single season mark for a Wildcats. Uitti also won the season's first setter honor on September 4.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (14-7 overall record, 4-2 America East record) defeated conference rival Binghamton on Monday, 3-1, before claiming a 3-2 comeback victory over crosstown-rival Siena on Sunday afternoon... The Great Danes win on Sunday broke a 17-match win streak for Siena, which had tied the Saints for the longest win streak in the nation with Nebraska and Maryland-Eastern Shore... Freshmen Amanda Cowdrey (Brampton, Ontario/Cardinal Leger) and Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) led the Great Danes against Binghamton... Cowdrey recorded her 13th double-double of the season with a match-high 20 kills and 17 digs, while also recording four service aces... Stanley recorded 48 assists and 10 digs against the Bearcats before tallying 45 assists, five digs, four block assists, two kills and two service aces versus Siena... Senior middle blocker Ashley Crenshaw (Birmingham, Ala./Hoover) led the Great Danes against the Saints, finishing with a team-high 19 kills and a career-best 10 block assists... She also recorded 13 kills and five block assists against Binghamton... UAlbany will return to America East Conference play on Friday, visiting Stony Brook at 7 p.m. before traveling to Hartford on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Binghamton (13-14, 5-2) swept a pair of matches from UMBC over the weekend to move ahead of the Retrievers and into sole possession of second place in the league standings...The Bearcats have now won seven of nine matches and are a game within .500 on the season for the first time since September 14...Senior Jacki Kane (Centennial, Colo./Grandview) averaged 2.43 kills per game at a team-high .341 hitting percentage, and 2.57 blocks per game. She continues to lead the America East Conference on the season with 141 total blocks (1.48/gm). This week, Kane moved into third on the all-time Bearcat block list and now has 566 career blocks...America East Rookie of the Week Lindsey Mueller (West Bend West, Wis./West Bend) recorded double-doubles in both matches and has now recorded double-doubles in four consecutive matches and 19 times this season. She averaged 12.14 assists per game over those two matches, as well as 3.57 digs per game and 1.29 blocks per game...With Friday's victory over UMBC, Binghamton has swept the regular season series with the Retrievers in three straight seasons and has won nine of the team's last two matchups...Binghamton has now won 18 of its last 20 matches at the West Gym... Binghamton returns home to host Siena on Tuesday, October 23 before hitting the road for a pair of conference matches on Friday, October 26 at Maine and Sunday, October 28 at New Hampshire.
Hartford (7-18, 0-7) dropped three matches last week, the first a mid-week tilt with in-state rival Central Connecticut. The Hawks then dropped a pair to Stony Brook completing their conference home and home series with the Seawolves over the weekend. The Hawks opened the the week with a four-game loss at CCSU, picking up the victory in the third game of the match. Hartford was led, against Central, by Jennifer Monroy (Rahway, N.J./Union Catholic) who finished with 14 kills. Erin Macro (Lincoln, R.I./Lincoln) was the only other Hawk in double figures with 12 kills. Sarah Rasor (Tampa Fla./Acad. of the Holy Names) led the Hawks with 38 assists and 10 digs for her first double double of the season. In the first of two matches against Stony Brook the Hawks were led by Monroy, the only player to finish with double digit kills, who had 15 kills. Rasor again picked up setting responsibilities and finished with 37 assists. Monroy again led the Hawks in the week ending match at Stony Brook on Sunday with seven kills. For the season, the Hawks are led by Macro who has 235 kills, one of five different players to record at least 100 kills, three of which have 200 or more. Lindsay Ford (Carson, Nev./Carson) has served in the setter's role for a majority of the season and leads the team with 710 assists in her rookie season. Defensively, the Hawks are led by Hallie Fullagar (Mesa, Ariz./Mountain View) who has 215 digs, one of six players with 100 ore more digs on the season.
Maine (2-18, 1-6 America East) hosted rival University of New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon... Maine lost the match 3-0... Maine was led in kills by junior Lindsay Allman who added 12 to her season total... Classmate Amy Lawson tallied nine kills for the Black Bears... Lawson also blocked 5 attacks for Maine... Freshman Paige Tortorello continued racking up her assist total with 37 and averaging just over 12 per game and also adding two service aces and nine digs... Junior Ashlee Wright came back strong after a few off weeks with 13 digs for the Black Bears... Next weekend, the Black Bears will host conference rivals Binghamton and UMBC... Both matches will be at 7 p.m. being on Friday and Saturday, respectively... In their last matches, Maine being away in both, Maine lost three games to one... So the Black Bears will be looking to build on those game wins when the Bearcats and Retrievers come to Orono.
UMBC (19-7, 4-3 America East) lost two straight matches for the first time since the weekend of Sept. 15, when they fell to Dayton and Western Kentucky at the Towson Tournament... The Retrievers were defeated by Binghamton, 3-1 on Friday night at Binghamton and suffered their first loss in 10 matches at the RAC Arena by a score of 3-0... The Retrievers were plagued by errors in their two matches this week, hitting just .049 for the week and recording 72 total errors in two matches and seven games played... Sophomore Pam Jarrett (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Pius X) returned to the Retriever lineup after suffering an injury against Delaware on Sept. 25 and led the Retrievers in service aces per game (1.33) and digs per game (4.67) for the week... Freshman Bridget Scheetz (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline Academy) also added to her season total, adding two assisted blocks on Friday and six on Sunday to move her to third on the Retrievers’ all-time single season chart with 85 assisted blocks... Scheetz averaged 1.14 blocks per game for the week... The Retrievers next will endure a four-match road trip, beginning with Friday and Saturday matches at New Hampshire and Maine this week, respectively.
New Hampshire (15-7, 4-3 America East) went 1-0 on the week picking up a convincing 3-0 (30-21, 30-24, 30-27) road win at Maine... Sophomore Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) recorded 15 kills, and senior tri-captain Toni Barnas (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove) recorded 13... The Wildcats hit at a .325 clip compared to Maine’s .223... America East Setter of the Week Sophomore Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) helped quarterback the Wildcats to victory, tallying 40 assists and 12 digs, while fellow sophomore Alyse Lahti (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange) led the team with 19 digs... Senior Jessica Compton (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South), sophomore Lindsay Fogarty (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) and senior Jeanne Czipri (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) contributed nine, eight and seven kills, respectively... Barnas hit at a .462 mark, while Bates hit at .303... The Wildcats return to action Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. when they play host to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County at Lundholm Gymnasium... On Sunday Oct. 28, in an effort to raise money and awareness to help fight breast cancer, team will participate in the “Dig for the Cure” event during their match against Binghamton... This year marks the first time UNH has participated in the nationwide cause, however, they are not alone as over 60 volleyball programs across the country are now participating in the event... The foundation was started in 2003 by former UNC Charlotte volleyball coach Lisa Marston after her mother survived breast cancer. Over the last three years Marston’s team along with many other programs across the country have raised more than $36,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation... Marston’s goal is to raise $200,000 towards the foundation this year and is encouraging anyone interested to help the cause.
Stony Brook (18-7, 6-1 America East) has won six matches in a row and 14 of 15. Stony Brook won consecutive matches from Hartford this weekend and has now won 11 straight matches against the Hawks. The Seawolves held Hartford to a .045 hitting percentage on Sunday afternoon, the lowest of any Stony Brook opponent this season. The Seawolves have now held 17 straight opponents under a .300 hitting percentage, holding 10 of those opponents under .200. Senior America East Player of the Week Jackie Ahlers and classmate Morgan Sweany have totaled double-digit kills in every Seawolves match this season. Ahlers is averaging 5.19 kills per game and hitting .402 in conference play. Stony Brook as a team is hitting .312 in five home matches this season while holding opponents to an attack percentage of just .186. The Seawolves have hit over .300 in six of their last eight matches... Stony Brook will host Albany on Friday at 7 p.m. in its only match of the week.