Albany Clinches Volleyball's Top Seed and Takes Home Two Weekly Honors

Albany Clinches Volleyball's Top Seed and Takes Home Two Weekly Honors

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- For the second straight year, Albany claimed the top seed for the America East Volleyball Championship with the first of two league wins last weekend. Two Great Danes led the team to the regular season title with superb performances over the weekend and garnered weekly honors. The junior duo of Teresa Coppiellie (Canton, Mich./Salem) and Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) captured the Player and Setter of the Week accolades for the second consecutive week, while Stony Brook freshman setter Corinne Perry (Northport, N.Y.) picked up the Rookie of the Week award.

Coppiellie takes home the award for the second straight week after leading the Great Danes with two strong performances against conference opponents. The junior outside hitter averaged 4.00 kills and 3.57 digs per set, while also recording two blocks, four assists, one service ace and a .320 hitting percentage. On Friday against UMBC, in arguably her best effort of the season, Coppiellie tallied a career-high 18 kills to go along with 16 digs and two block assists. On Sunday against Stony Brook, she finished with 10 kills and nine digs with three assists and a service ace in the three-set victory. The two wins put the Great Danes just one victory away from their second straight undefeated conference season, and clinched the top seed for the upcoming America East Championship.

Stanley continues her excellent play at the setter's position, leading the Great Danes to two wins against conference foes just below them in the league standings. She averaged a whopping 13.71 assists per set last week to bring her over 1,000 assists on the season (1015). Stanley also averaged 4.00 digs and 1.00 kills per set while recording a .227 hitting percentage. She quarterbacked the Great Danes to a .331 team hitting percentage in the two games, while recording two double-doubles herself. Against UMBC, Stanley tallied 50 assists and a team-high 17 digs to go along with three kills, two aces and a block assist. Against Stony Brook, she tallied 46 assists, 11 digs and four kills in three sets.

Perry finished second in the league last week with 10.50 assists per set, leading the Seawolves to a 1-1 record against conference opponents. She also averaged 2.50 digs per set in two games last week. Perry guided Stony Brook's offense to a season-best .371 hitting percentage in a sweep of Binghamton on Friday night, dishing out 36 assists in that match. The rookie also had eight digs, a kills, a block and an ace against the Bearcats. Against Albany on Sunday, Perry finished with 27 assists and seven digs. This is Perry's third rookie award this season, all coming during the conference slate of matches.

With one week to go in the regular season, there is still a logjam in the middle of the standings with four teams still vying for the other three slots in the championship. UMBC and Stony Brook currently sit with 5-4 records and both play New Hampshire (3-5) in their season finales this weekend. Binghamton, the preseason favorite, has a 4-5 league record and will play Hartford at home on Friday night. With the potential for a four-way tie for second through fifth place, the championship field and seedings may come down to percentage of sets won against the other tied teams.

Team Notebooks:

UAlbany (19-8 overall record, 9-0 America East record) extended its win streak to 15 straight matches after defeating UMBC and Stony Brook on the road in America East action over the weekend... The Great Danes have won 23 consecutive league matches dating back to the 2007 season... UAlbany was led this week by junior outside hitter Teresa Coppiellie (Canton, Mich./Salem), who averaged 4.00 kills and 3.57 digs per set, while also recording two blocks, four assists, one service ace and a .320 hitting percentage... Coppiellie tallied a career-high 18 kills to go with 16 digs against UMBC... Junior setter Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) continued her strong play, averaging 13.71 assists and 4.00 digs, finishing with two double-doubles over the weekend... Stanley finished with 50 assists and a team-high 17 digs versus UMBC... On Sunday she tallied 46 assists, 11 digs and four kills... Valerie Sourbeer (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) averaged a team-high 4.43 kills and a .391 hitting percentage over the weekend... Sophomore Casey Wright (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa) averaged 2.14 kills and a team-best 0.86 blocks in the two matches... The Great Danes hit .331 as a team in the two matches, while holding their opponents to a .185 hitting percentage... UAlbany will close out the regular season conference slate on Saturday, hosting Hartford at 4 p.m... The Great Danes will honor seniors Laura Livergood, Valerie Sourbeer and Hillary White prior to the start of the match.

Binghamton (12-14, 4-5  AE) dropped its fifth-straight match to Stony Brook on Friday before bouncing back to sweep UMBC on Saturday ... The Bearcats have split the season series with both the Seawolves and Retrievers ... Junior hitter Anna Lejina (Riga, Latvia/Riga Secondary/Univ. of Latvia) led Binghamton with 4.50 kills per set on a blistering .464 hitting percentage ... Lejina had 15 kills and hit .519 in Binghamton's three-set sweep of UMBC ... Junior hitter Michelle McDonough (Orland Hills, Ill./Andrew) chipped in with 3.83 kills per set ... McDonough became the fastest Bearcat to reach 1,000 career kills in her 300th career set on Friday night at Stony Brook ... McDonough became the sixth Bearcat to reach 1,000 kills at the Division I level and just the second player to do it in her junior year ... Junior setter Lindsey Mueller (West Bend, Wisc./West Bend West) led Binghamton in assists (10.33 per set), digs (4.00 per set), aces (3) and tied for the team lead in blocks (0.67) on the weekend ... Mueller posted 35 assists, 15 digs, four blocks and three aces in Binghamton's sweep of UMBC ... Senior middle blocker Dawn Lammert (Sussex, Wis./Arrowhead) moved into third place on the Division I total blocks list at Binghamton and now has 356 career stuffs ... Binghamton will host Syracuse on Tuesday in its final non-conference contest of the season ... On Friday night Binghamton will host Hartford in their regular season and conference finale ... Binghamton will enter the Hartford game with a 4-5 conference record, just a half a game behind Stony Brook and UMBC, who are tied for second place.

The Hartford volleyball team (7-19, 0-8 AE) dropped its only match last week, a three-set decision to the New Hampshire Wildcats at the Reich Family Pavilion on Friday night ... The Hawks were led in that match by junior setter Lindsay Ford (Carson, Nev./Carson) who finished tied for the lead in kills, led the team in assists and led the team in digs ... Ford finished the match with six kills, which tied her with Erin Macro (Lincoln, R.I./Lincoln) for the team lead ... Ford also hit will, suffering just one error for a .357 hitting percentage ... The Hawks' only setter also led the team defensively with nine kills, while adding 20 assists ... Prior to the match, Hartford honored their four seniors Macro, Sarah Boss, Hallie Fullagar and Maddison Molyneux ... The Hawks will close out the 2009 season with a pair of conference road matches at Binghamton on Friday (7 p.m.) and at Albany on Saturday (4 p.m.).

UMBC (13-11, 5-4 AE) dropped its two matches this past week, 3-1 to Albany on Friday, and 3-0 to Binghamton on Saturday... Senior Pam Jarrett (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Pius X) moved into seventh all-time in UMBC history with 1,215 career digs after earning 36 (5.14 digs per set) in two matches over the weekend. She leads the Retrievers with 323 this year (3.71 digs per set), the third consecutive year she has passed the 300-dig mark... Sophomore Alyssa Lang (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) averaged 3.43 kills per set over the weekend and now leads UMBC with 218 kills (3.07 kills per set) this season... The Retrievers need a win at New Hampshire on Sunday at 1 p.m. in their regular season finale or will need help to reach the America East Championship for the second consecutive year.

University of New Hampshire (11-14, 3-5 AE) won its lone match of the week with a three-set sweep of Hartford on the road Friday night... The Wildcats have won the last two matches by capturing six-straight sets... New Hampshire returns home for the final weekend of the regular season in a fight for a playoff spot... The Wildcats will play host to Stony Brook on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. before it plays host to UMBC for its annual senior day on Sunday (1 p.m.)... UNH will honor the accomplishments of its four-player senior class... In the win over Hartford, Lindsay Fogarty (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) tallied a match-high 17 kills... Fogarty hit at a .343 clip and added six digs, while classmates Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) and Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll), as well as junior Sara Heldman (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove), all chipped in for the Wildcats... Uitti racked up 31 assists, Bates tallied five kills and 12 digs and Heldman posted 14 digs.

Stony Brook (13-12, 5-4 AE) went 1-1 over the weekend, sweeping Binghamton (25-17, 25-15, 25-13) before losing to Albany (25-18, 25-23, 25-20)... The Seawolves posted a season-best attack percentage of .371 in their victory over Binghamton, committing just nine errors while registering 48 kills... Three Seawolves registered double-digits in kills, led by senior Harmonie Calinda with 11... Seniors Lindsey Gordon and Lisa Doremus both had ten kills with Gordon hitting .714 without any errors... Freshman Corinne Perry dished out 36 assists in the win while junior Jeanette Gibbs had 12 digs... Calinda recorded 14 kills in the loss the Albany while Gibbs had 20 digs... Junior Ashley Headen averaged 2.50 kills/set and a .382 attack percentage in the two matches.


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