CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- In a telling weekend in terms of the postseason picture, one more team clinched a berth into the 2008 America East Volleyball Championship and two others battled for the top seed, with University at Albany prevailing. In addition, three players earned weekly honors for successful weekends on the court.
University of Maine's Laura Goettsch (Woodstock, Ontario/Jacksonville University) received the conference's player of the week accolade after helping the Black Bears clinch a championship berth. Stony Brook University freshman setter Kelsey Sullivan (Hamilton, Va.) earned the rookie of the week, while University at Albany's Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) picked up the setter of the week honor.
Goettsch helped lead Maine to two 3-0 conference wins and clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 2005. The senior outside hitter led Maine against Hartford with 10 kills, six digs and one block, while hitting at a .600 attack percentage. On Sunday afternoon at Stony Brook, Goettsch had a team-high 11 digs and added 13 kills with a .300 attack percentage. She also chipped in two assists, a served ace and a block. For the weeked, Goettsch averaged 3.83 kills per set, 2.83 digs per set, hit .400 and recorded two blocks and an ace. This is her first award of the season from the conference office, and she is the first Black Bear honored in 2008.
Sullivan dished out 78 assists, averaging 11.1 assists per set, in the Seawolves' 1-1 week. The rookie setter helped her team hit a league-high .308 last week over seven sets. Sullivan also had 1.29 kills per set with a .471 attack percentage, averaged 1.14 digs per set and posted five blocks. In the 3-1 win over New Hampshire, she had 38 assists, six kills, three blocks and two digs. This is the first rookie award Sullivan has received from the conference, however she did earn the America East setter of the week for week one
Stanley quarterbacked Albany to a 3-1 win over Binghamton on Sunday, the Great Danes' only match of the week, which clinched the top seed for the America East Volleyball Championship and at least a share of the regular season title. In the lone match, the sophomore recorded a match-high 46 assists and just missed out on a double-double with nine digs. She also added four kills on four attempts for a perfect hitting percentage and recorded one block assist in the match. The Great Danes outhit the Bearcats for the match, .288 to .110, due to Stanley's passing. This is the seventh time this season Stanley has earned this award.
With Sunday's win, Albany, undefeated in conference play, clinched the top seed for the 2008 America East Volleyball Championship, at least a share of the regular season title and the right to host the tournament November 21-22. Binghamton fell to the Great Danes, but still can not finish any lower than second with two more games remaining in the regular season. The Black Bears are also guaranteed a spot, while UMBC and Stony Brook are still in the hunt during the final weekend of regular season play for the fourth and final spot.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (18-8 overall record, 10-0 in America East) remained undefeated in conference play, defeating Binghamton, 3-1, in the lone match of the week... The victory ensured the Great Danes at least a share of the conference title and hosting rights for the upcoming America East Conference Tournament... Senior middle blocker Kamisha Kellam (Forestville, Md./Bishop McNamara) recorded a team-high 13 kills with a .500 hitting percentage in the match... Kellam produced just one error on 24 attempts, while also totaling four block assists and one dig... Kellam continues to lead the Great Danes, averaging 1.00 blocks per game and adds 2.65 kills with a team-high .375 hitting percentage on the season... Freshman middle blocker Kalyn Mostert (Nepean, Ontario/Marivale) recorded eight kills, four digs, five block assists, one assist, one service ace and a .500 hitting percentage... Sophomore setter Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) recorded a match-high 46 assists and just missed out on a double-double with nine digs... She also added four kills on four attempts for a perfect hitting percentage and recorded one block assist in the match... Stanley continues to lead the conference, averaging 10.54 assists per set and is also averaging 2.30 digs per set... She also leads the Great Danes with 30 service aces... Junior outside hitter Cate Eckhardt (Ottawa, Ontario/Glebe Collegiate/Martin Methodist) also reached double-digit kill totals against Binghamton with 10 to go along with nine digs and one service ace... Senior middle blocker Hillary White (Aberdeen, S.D./Aberdeen/Colorado State) finished with eight kills, five digs and seven total blocks against the Bearcats... UAlbany, which has won 12 straight matches heading into the final week of regular-season play, will host Hartford on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. and Stony Brook on Nov. 16 at 1 p.m.
Binghamton (14-13, 8-2 America East) split a pair of America East matches last week at home, defeating UMBC in four sets and then losing to Albany in four. With the win against UMBC, the Bearcats clinched at least a number two seed for the upcoming America East Championship. Sophomore setter Lindsey Mueller (West Bend, Wis./West Bend West) averaged 12.12 assists and 2.38 digs per set on the week and posted a double-double (42 assits-12 digs) against Albany. Sophomore hitter Michelle McDonough (Orland Hills, Ill./Andrew) averaged 4.75 kills per set on the week and tallied a career-high 22 kills against UMBC. Sophomore hitter Anna Lejina (Riga, Latvia/U. of Latvia) averaged 4.62 kills per set to aid McDonough on the offensive attack. Junior middle Dawn Lammert (Sussex, Wis./Arrowhead) increased her average with 1.38 blocks per set. Lammert is currently the conferences top blocker and if she remains on top she will be the seventh consecutive Bearcat to led the AE in blocks per set. Senior libero Jaclyn Strader (Kettering, Ohio/Julienne) became the all-division leader in career digs at Binghamton. Strader became Binghamton's Division I era leader earlier this season, and on senior night against UMBC she becem the all-division mark and currently has 1,567. The previous all-division career mark was held by Donna Lund (1990-93) who tallied 1,548 while competing at the Division III level. Binghamton will wrap up its AE schedule with the road trip up north, facing Maine on Friday and New Hampshire Saturday.
The University of Hartford volleyball team (6-23, 0-10 America East) dropped its final two home matches of the season, the first in three sets to Maine (15-25, 21-25, 11-25) and the second in four sets (18-25, 25-16, 18-25, 11-25) to the New Hampshire Wildcats. Against Maine, Maddison Molyneux led the Hawks with 11 kills, a match-high. She also led the team with a .250 attack percentage (five errors, 24 total attacks). Against New Hampshire, Erin Macro and Hallie Fullagar led the team with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Michelle Coredell led the Hawks in hitting percentage against the Wildcasts with a .250 effort (five kills, two errors, 12 total attempts). Sophomore Lindsay Ford continues to captain the Hawks offense as the team’s primary setter. She finished with 25 assists in the Maine match and added 35 in the New Hampshire match. Defensively, the Hawks were led by Danielle Etta in both matches, with 13 digs against Maine and 14 against New Hampshire, the fourth- and fifth-straight matches in double figures for the rookie. The Hawks will close out the regular season with a pair of conference matches. They begin with a 7 p.m. match at Albany on Friday, November 14 and close out the regular season on Sunday, November 16 at UMBC at 2 p.m.
Maine (13-12, 6-5 America East) will return to the America East playoffs for the first time since 2005 and have their most wins since coach Lynn Atherley’s first season in Orono when the Black Bears finished 17-11... Maine traveled to Connecticut on Friday night as they downed the Hartford Hawks in three sets (25-15, 25-21, 25-11)... Laura Goettsch (Woodstock, Ontario) led the Black Bears with 10 kills, six kills and a .600 attack percentage... Jessica Wolfenden (Ottawa, Ontario) had a match-high 29 assists, seven digs and two total blocks... Amy Lawson (Coeur D’Alene, Idaho) and Lindsay Allman (St. Louis, Mo.) each added eight kills... Brittany Kiehl (Virginia Beach, Va.) chipped in four kills and three total blocks... Ashlee Wright (Muncie, Ind.) had a team-high nine digs... Maine traveled to another conference foe on Sunday afternoon when they beat Stony Brook in three sets (25-17, 25-23, 26-24)... Allman had a team-high 15 kills and nine digs... Goettsch added 13 kills and a team-high 11 digs... Wright tied Goettsch for the team-high with 11 digs... The Black Bear attack was organized by Wolfenden who served up 37 assists, seven digs and three block assists... The weekend marked the first time this season that the Black Bears have won back-to-back road matches and have won consecutive matches in only three sets... Maine hosts Binghamton on Friday, Nov. 14, in their regular-season finale starting at 7 pm... The match-up could pose as a potential America East playoff preview.
UMBC (16-11, 5-5 America East) dropped its only match of the week on Friday to Binghamton, 3-1... Freshman Alyssa Lang (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) led the Retrievers with 16 kills and three service aces. She averaged four kills per set while adding five digs and two blocks... Sophomore Bridge Scheetz now has 99 assisted blocks, the second-most in a single-season in school history, and 102 total blocks, the seventh-most... With 13 kills against the Bearcats, junior Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) moved into seventh all-time in UMBC history with 991 kills... The Retrievers have a busy last week of the regular season with a non-conference matchup at Delaware Tuesday at 7 p.m., before hosting America East foes Stony Brook and Hartford, Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., respectively.
New Hampshire (7-20, 4-7 America East) earned a split on the road at Stony Brook and Hartford this weekend... They lost to SBU, 3-1, on Friday (18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-18) and rallied to best Hartford, 3-1, on Saturday (25-18, 16-25, 25-18, 25-11)... On Friday at Stony Brook, Lindsay Fogarty (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) recorded 10 kills and two blocks... Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) and Pauline Acres (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa) both finished with eight kills and Lauren Laquerre (Concord, N.H./Concord) tallied seven... On Saturday, Bates had a team-high 11 kills and added eight digs and two blocks... In addition to Bates, Acres and Fogarty each recorded nine kills and a block, while Justine Elliott (Mitchellville, Md./St. John's College) had a team-high five blocks for the Wildcats... Defensively, senior Lucia Bridova (Bratislava, Slovakia) led the team with 11 digs. Setter Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich.) dished out 24 assists and had six digs.Junior Alyse Lahti (Pepper Pike, Ohio/ Orange), who sits second in the all-time digs list, is just 10 digs away from becoming the first Wildcat to have three 400-dig seasons in her UNH career... The Wildcats will conclude the 2008 season on Saturday, Nov. 15 against Binghamton on Senior day... Prior to the game, the Wildcats will honor the accomplishments on senior Lucia Bridova (Bratislava, Slovakia/Gym a Stredni Frydek-Mistek).
Stony Brook (12-16, 3-7 America East) went 1-1 over the weekend, taking down UNH 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 25-22, 25-18) before losing to Maine 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 26-24)... The Seawolves dropped their first set to UNH before rallying for a 3-1 victory... Sophomore Ashley Headen was dominant on both offense and defense against the Wildcats racking up 11 kills and a career-high eight blocks... Senior Gulce Nazli Dikecligil led both teams with 17 kills... Dikecligil and fellow senior Jessica Graham both played well in their final home matches against Maine, recording 13 and eight kills respectively... Stony Brook wraps up its regular season schedule this weekend against UMBC on Friday and Albany on Sunday.