CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- UMBC's Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) takes home America East Volleyball Player of the
Week honors after her performance helped the Retrievers go 3-0 last
week. Albany's Amanda Cowdrey (Brampton, Ontario/Cardinal Leger) receives the Rookie of the Week accolade
for the second consecutive week and UMBC's Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Glenlawn) earns the
conference's Setter of the Week. All awards are for the week ending
September 23. Click here for full release
Oscars recorded 29 kills, 13 digs, four total blocks, and 33.5 points in the Retrievers' double win in a tri-match against Fairleigh Dickinson and Morgan State on Saturday. Oscars tallied 19 kills on 60 attacks, 20.5 points, and 11 digs in the Retrievers win over Morgan State, all of which were season-highs. For the week, which also included a 3-0 victory over Coppin State, Oscars averaged 4.00 kills per game and 4.69 points per game. This is the first weekly accolade of 2007 for the sophomore, the 2006 America East Rookie of the Year.
Cowdrey averaged a team-high 3.75 kills and 3.75 digs per game to lead the Great Danes to an undefeated weekend and en route to being named the Sheraton-Penn Classic tournament MVP. The freshman recorded double-doubles in all three matches. She had a team-high 16 kills to go with 14 digs in a 3-2 win over Temple. Cowdrey followed that up with a 15-kill, 16-dig performance against Penn, before recording her eighth double-double of the season with a match-high 14 kills and 15 digs in a 3-0 sweep of Quinnipiac. This is the second-straight week Cowdrey has been named the top rookie by the conference.
Giles tallied season-highs in kills (five), hitting percentage (.667) and points (10.0) in a win over Fairleigh Dickinson and also tallied season-highs in assists (52) and aces (three) against Morgan State. Giles averaged 12.43 assists per game, 0.71 aces per game, 3.43 digs per game, 0.86 blocks per game, and 2.36 points per game during the Retrievers' weekend matches. Giles also put up 32 assists, four kills on four attempts, two digs and one assisted block in a match earlier in the week against Coppin State.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (10-5 overall record, 0-0 America East record) went undefeated at the Sheraton-Penn Classic last weekend... The Great Danes defeated Temple, 3-2, before claming victories over the host Quakers, 3-1, and Quinnipiac, 3-0... America East Rookie of the Week Amanda Cowdrey (Brampton, Ontario/Cardinal Leger) averaged a team-high 3.75 kills and 3.75 digs to lead UAlbany... Cowdrey, who was named the tournament MVP, recorded double-doubles of the kill-dig variety in each of the three matches... She had a team-high 16 kills to go with 14 digs in the win over Temple... She then had a 15-kill, 16-dig performance against Penn before recording her eighth double-double of the season with a match-high 14 kills and 15 digs in the sweep of Quinnipiac... Freshman setter Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) averaged 10.20 assists and 1.90 digs over the weekend... She recorded 40 assists, six digs, four kills, three service aces and three block assists in the win over Temple... She then tallied a match-high 48 assists to go with 11 digs for her sixth double-double of the season against Penn... Senior middle blocker Ashley Crenshaw (Birmingham, Ala./Hoover) averaged 3.50 kills per game over the weekend... Crenshaw led all players in the match against Penn, finishing with 19 kills... She added 10 kills against Quinnipiac and 13 versus Temple... Crenshaw also finished with four service aces and six total blocks... Freshman libero Tawny Dahmes (Chaska, Minn./Chaska) was also named to the all-tournament team after averaging a team-best 4.67 digs per game... She had a career-high 26 digs for the Great Danes against Penn... Dahmes also had four service aces over the weekend... The Great Danes kick off America East Conference play on Friday, Sept. 28 against Hartford at 7 p.m. at home, and then host Stony Brook on Saturday at 7 p.m. in University Gymnasium.
Binghamton (6-12, 0-0) continued to struggle this week as its losing skid stretched to eight matches. The Bearcats posted an 0-3 mark this weekend at the LIU Blackbird Invitational in Brooklyn, N.Y... Freshman hitter Michelle McDonough (Orland Hills, Ill./Andrew ) averaged 2.60 kills per game to lead the Bearcats... Entering the week as the America East leader in digs, junior libero Jaclyn Strader (Kettering, Ohio/Julienne
Catholic) averaged 3.80 per game to pace Binghamton's backline defense... The Bearcats begin conference play at home against New Hampshire on Friday, September 28 at 7 p.m.
Hartford (6-10, 0-0) dropped all three matches it played last week, all at the Harvard Crimson Classic in Boston, Mass. The Hawks opened the invitational with a 3-1 loss to NJIT (16-30, 23-30, 30-25, 26-30) before dropping two matches on Saturday, 3-1 to Harvard (22-30, 23-30, 30-26, 9-30) and 3-0 to Dartmouth (21-30, 25-30, 23-30). For the week, the Hawks were led by Jennifer Monroy (Rahway, N.J./Union Catholic) who was named to the All-Tournament Team, her third such honor of the season. Monroy finished the week with 35 kills and a hitting percentage of .147. She was also third on the team last week with 28 digs and finished with a double-double against Harvard where she had 12 kills and 13 digs. Freshman setter Lindsay Ford (Carson, Nev./Carson) continues to marshal the Hawks offense, finishing the week with 101 assists. She finished with 37 digs against NJIT, 34 against Harvard and 30 against Dartmouth. Leading the team in hitting on the week was Maddison Molyneux (Caledon, Ontario/Mayfield Secondary) who had six kills and hit .312 with just one error in 16 total attacks. The Hawks will play two matches this week, both on the road. They begin with in-state rival Sacred Heart on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. before heading to opening conference play against Albany on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Maine (1-12, 0-0) had an exhibition match against the University of New Brunswick this weekend... Maine was led by junior Jessica Wolfenden in the match with 10 kills... Classmate Lindsay Allman also added 8 kills... The match gave the Black Bears a chance to tune up their skills for this weekend’s openers in America East... The Black Bears will be led into conference play by Allman who averages 3.37 kills per game, one of the top in America East... Allman also leads Maine in points per game with 4.08... Maine will be looking to the serving of Jessica Wolfenden who leads the team with 22 service aces... And the outside hitters will be looking for the setup from freshman Paige Tortorello who averages 4.86 assists a game... This week, Maine begins its America East schedule Friday away at UMBC and Saturday away at Binghamton.
UMBC (12-3, 0-0) went 3-0 last week, recording 3-0 wins against Coppin State and Fairleigh Dickinson as well as a 3-1 decision over Morgan State... The Retrievers began the week with a Tuesday night home match against Coppin defeating the Eagles 3-0 before hosting the Knights and Bears in a tri-match on Saturday... America East Player of the Week Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) led the Retrievers in the tri-match, averaged 4.14 kpg, 4.79 ppg, and tallying season-highs in kills, attacks, points, and digs against Morgan State... The conference's Setter of the Week Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada/Glenlawn) recorded her fifth double-double of the season with a season-high 52 assist and 15 dig performance against Morgan State, averaging 12.43 apg, and 3.43 digs per game on the weekend... Freshman Sabrina Hoeks (Olympia, Wash./AG West Black Hills) also tallied her share of season-highs, posting 14 kills on 27 attacks, 16.5 points, nine digs, and three blocks against Morgan State while averaging 3.44 kpg, 4.22 points ppg, and 2.11 dpg during the Retrievers three matches last week... The Retrievers will travel to Delaware on Tuesday to take on the Blue Hens and then return for a four-match homestand including their first conference matches against Maine and New Hampshire.
New Hampshire (10-4, 0-0) made it four wins in a row as the Wildcats collected a 3-0 sweep of Harvard in its only action of the week... Sophomore Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) recorded a match-high 17 kills and added six digs... The ?Cats, who have now won seven-consecutive games over the last three matches, set the tone early by taking game one 30-20 and hitting at a match-best .333 clip for the game. In comparison, Harvard hit at .181 overall and had a single-game high of .220 in Game 3... In addition to Bates, Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) set up the attack with a match-high 38 assists, while defensive specialist Alyse Lahti (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange) finished with a match-best 23 digs. Also contributing on offensively was Toni Barnas (Cary, Ill./Cary Grove), who recorded 11 kills and a .226 hitting percentage vs. the Crimson... Emmy Blouin (St. Albert, Alberta/Paul Kane) and Jessica Compton (Woodridge, Ill./Downers Grove South) each added six kills... New Hampshire returns to action Sept. 25 as they play host to intra-state rival Dartmouth College in its final non-conference tilt of the season... Start time at Lundholm Gymnasium is 7 p.m... UNH opens America East play over the weekend traveling to Binghamton on Friday (7 p.m.) and UMBC on Sunday (1 p.m.).
Stony Brook (11-6, 0-0) rang up another undefeated week, going 3-0 again to improve its current win streak to seven ... it is the longest win streak for Stony Brook volleyball since the 2003 season when the team won nine in a row ... SBU has now won the last three tournaments in which it has played ... joining Deutsch on the all-tournament team at Brown was junior Noelle Bay ... it was the third all-tournament selection for the Seawolves libero this season ... she totaled six aces and 60 digs at the tournament ... senior Amy Oleksiej also had a strong tournament, hitting .246 with 29 kills, nine aces and 10 blocks ... she led the team in aces and combined with Deutsch to serve up 11 of SBU’s 17 aces ... the 17 aces against CCSU was the most by Stony Brook in a match this season ... Stony Brook has won all five of its matches that have gone to five games this season ... the match against Fordham this week will be just the second at home this season for the Seawolves ... the win against Brown was the first-ever for Stony Brook in four tries.