CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--New Hampshire Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) received America East's final Player of the Week award this season while leading her Wildcats to the number two seed in the upcoming conference championship on Saturday, November 17 and Sunday, November 18 in Stony Brook, N.Y. UMBC's Bridget Scheetz (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline Academy) earned rookie recognition for her record-breaking performance last week, and Stony Brook's senior setter Katilyn Deutsch (St. Louis, Mo./Southern Mississippi) receives setter honors for the week ending November 11 after she helped stretch the Seawolves' win streak to 11 games. Click here for PDF release.
Bates posted a double-double with a match-high 20 kills and 17 digs in a 3-1 win over Albany, securing the second seed for the Wildcats in the upcoming America East Championship. The sophomore middle blocker hit at a .390 clip, and had a team-high three blocks and two aces. Bates landed on the conference top ten in four categories last week, including hitting percentage, kills (5.00 per game), digs (4.25 per game), and points (5.62 per game). This is her first weekly award of the season.
Scheetz averaged 1.56 blocks per game last week, third-best in the conference, and broke the UMBC single-season record for assisted blocks with 112. Over the weekend, Scheetz also averaged 3.22 kills per game and 4.06 points per game, while hitting at .316 in three matches last week. The rookie registered eight assisted blocks and a .500 clip from the floor in the 3-2 loss to Navy on Tuesday. Scheetz has won two weekly rookie honors this season, both the first and the last awards of the season.
Deutsch recorded 107 assists in the Seawolves' two victories over conference opponents last week, giving her 15.29 assists per game to lead the conference over that time. In the 3-1 win over Binghamton, the senior posted 64 assists, the second-most for her this season. Deutsch followed with a 43-assist performance in a 3-0 sweep of UMBC on Sunday. This is Deutsch's second setter recognition of the season.
The 2007 America East Volleyball Championship seedings are secure after the weekend's match play. The number one seed and host Stony Brook Seawolves will face the #4 Binghamton Bearcats on Saturday, November 17 at 1 p.m. in a rematch of last Thursday's 3-1 Stony Brook win. In the second semifinal at 3:30 p.m., #2 New Hampshire and #3 Albany will square-off. Winners of each semifinal match will play for an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (19-9 overall record, 8-4 America East record) split two conference matches on the road over the weekend... The Great Danes defeated Maine, 3-0, before falling, 3-1, to New Hampshire... Sophomore outside hitter Kate Eckhardt (Ottawa, Ontario/Glebe Collegiate) averaged 3.29 kills, 2.14 digs and 0.86 blocks in a 1-1 week for the Great Danes. Eckhardt also recorded four service aces and seven assists in the two matches... Against Maine on Friday, Eckhardt finished with a match-high 17 kills, hitting .593, to go along with eight digs, three total blocks and one service ace... Versus New Hampshire on Sunday, Eckhardt recorded nine kills, seven digs, three total blocks and three service aces... She is averaging 1.56 kills and 2.77 digs per game on the season... Freshman outside hitter Amanda Cowdrey (Brampton, Ontario/Cardinal Leger) averaged 3.33 kills and 2.83 digs in two matches over the weekend... She recorded a double-double with 16 kills and 14 digs against New Hampshire, along with four block assists... She added four kills and four digs in a 3-0 sweep of Maine... Cowdrey leads the team on the season, averaging 3.47 kills and 3.43 digs per game... Senior middle blocker Ashley Crenshaw (Birmingham, Ala./Hoover) recorded the 1,000th kill of her career versus New Hampshire... She is ninth on UAlbany’s all-time kills chart... The Great Danes are seeded third in the America East Tournament, and will face off against second-seeded New Hampshire on Saturday at 1 p.m.... The Wildcats swept the regular-season series with their win on Sunday.
Binghamton (16-17, 7-5 America East) concluded its regular season schedule with a 3-0 victory over visiting Hartford on Sunday. The Bearcats will carry the No. 4 seed and play Stony Brook in the semifinals of the America East Championship on Saturday, November 17 at 3:30 p.m. Earlier in the week, the Bearcats dropped a 3-1 decision to the top-seeded Seawolves at the West Gym Court...The Bearcats have now qualified for the America East Championship in four consecutive seasons...Binghamton finished the 2007 season with a 6-3 mark on its home floor...Senior Jacki Kane (Centennial, Colo.) moved into the Bearcat record books for her performance at the net. Kane established a new single-season school record for blocks with 182, surpassing the previous mark of 174 set by former Bearcat Anne Crocus in 2002. Also, the 6-2 middle hitter moved into second on the school’s all-time total block list. She now has 607 for her career and is just six blocks behind Susan Rinde ’84 for the program’s all-time lead headed into Saturday's match...Freshman setter Lindsey Mueller (West Bend, Wis./West Bend West) recorded a pair of double-doubles on the week. Mueller now has 24 on the season.
Hartford (8-23, 1-11 America East) closed out its 2007 season with matches at UMBC and Binghamton last week. The Hawks dropped 3-0 decisions in both matches. For the week, Megan Schauffele (Live Oak, Texas/Incarnate Word) and Jennifer Monroy (Rahway, N.J./Union Catholic) led the Hawks. Both finished with double digit kills in one of the two matches. Monroy led the Hawks against UMBC with 10 kills, while Schauffele added the same against Binghamton. Sarah Rasor (Tampa, Fl./Academy of the Holy Names) led the Hawks offense with 19 and 15 kills in the two matches. Defensively, the Hawks were led by Schauffele against UMBC and Sarah Boss (Fremont, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) in the Binghamton match. Schauffele finished with 11 kills against UMBC, While Boss put up 15 digs in the season finale. Monroy closes out her career with 1,253 fourth most by any player at Hartford. Rasor closed out his career with 1,525 assists.
Maine (3-22, 2-10 America East) finished up their America East conference play this past weekend hosting conference rival Albany... Maine lost the match by a score of 3-0... In the match against Albany, Maine was led in kills by junior Laura Goettsch who tallied 11... Freshman Paige Tortorello and junior Jessica Wolfenden split the setting duties totaling 20 and 14 assists, respectively... Junior Lindsay Allman led the Black Bears in digs with 18... The loss marks the end of America East play for the Black Bears this season... The Black Bears ended the season with a 2-10 record in conference play but going 2-4 at home in that stretch... The 2008 season looks good for the Black Bears as there are no seniors on this year’s team with all players expected to return next season... Maine still has two matches to play, but not for two weeks, at Marquette against hosts Marquette and South Dakota State.
UMBC (20-12, 5-7 America East) finished their winningest season in nine years last week as they recorded a victory against Hartford and fell to Navy and Stony Brook... The last time the Retrievers tallied 20 or more victories in a season was in 1998, when they finished with a 22-7 record... America East Rookie of the Week Bridget Scheetz (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline Academy) averaged 1.56 blocks per game, 3.22 kills per game, 4.06 points per game, and maintained a .316 hitting percentage over the Retrievers’ three matches last week... The rookie added eight assisted blocks and hit .500 from the floor in the loss to Navy, bringing her season assisted blocks total up to 112, which is a new UMBC single-season record... Sophomore Tiffany Johnson (Abingdon, Md./Arundel/Kansas State) also made her mark on the Retriever record books, as she totaled 93 assisted and 98 total blocks for the season, which puts her into ties for second and sixth, respectively, on the single-season charts, while senior Katrina Carrick (San Diego, Calif./Morse) added her name to the all-time top ten for assisted blocks as she brought her career total up 117, good for tenth on the list.
New Hampshire (19-8, 8-4) closed out the regular season with a convincing 3-1 win over Albany on Sunday... With the win the Wildcats finished in a second-place tie with Albany and earned the second seed by virtue of a pair of head-to-head wins over the Great Danes... These two teams will meet against next weekend in the semifinals of the America East Championship... Match time is 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17 at top-seeded Stony Brook... The winner of that match will play the winner of the No. 1 Stony Brook, No. 4 Binghamton match for the title... Somethings got to give on Saturday as the Wildcats own an active four-game winning streak in the America East Championship, while the Great Danes have won two of the last three titles... UNH captured back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003... In Sunday's 3-1 win over Albany, America East Player of the Week Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) posted a double-double with 20 kills and 17 digs... The game scores for the regular-season finale were 30-26, 30-25, 17-30 and 30-24... In addition to Bates, seniors Emmy Blouin (St. Albert, Alberta/Paul Kane) and Jessica Compton (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South) recorded double-figure kills with 15 and 11, respectively. Freshman setter Sara Heldman (Greenwood, Indiana/Center Grove) recorded a career-high 46 assists. Defensively, Alyse Lahti (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange) had a team-high 23 digs... With her 15 kills Blouin moved into third place on the all-time kills list with 1,281... Her 385 kills this season is the 10th-best single season mark in program history.
Stony Brook (23-7, 11-1) wrapped up their regular season with two more conference victories this week, running their winning streak to 11. Stony Brook won 11 straight conference matches after dropping the opener to Albany to secure its first ever America East regular season title. Jackie Ahlers had a match-high 30 kills to lead Stony Brook to its 10th straight victory in a 3-1 win over Binghamton (15-17, 6-5 AE) on Thursday evening at the West Gym. The Seawolves came out on top by scores of 30-26, 31-29, 28-30, and 30-28. Morgan Sweany added 20 kills and America East Setter of the Week Kaityln Deutsch had a match-high 64 assists in the winning effort. Sweany recorded a double-double (10 kills, 12 digs) and junior Noelle Bay had a match-high 16 digs as the Stony Brook women's volleyball wrapped up a spectacular regular season with its 11th straight victory, a 3-1 (30-25, 30-23, 30-19) win over UMBC on Sunday evening. The top-seeded Seawolves (23-7, 11-1) will now host the four-team America East Tournament November 17-18, opening up against the fourth-seeded Binghamton Bearcats on Saturday afternoon. Sweany finished the season with a team-high 18 double-doubles for the Seawolves who won 11 straight conference games after dropping their opener to Albany.