CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Stony Brook junior middle blocker Ashley Headen (Alexandria, Va./St. Stephen's & St. Agnes) led the Seawolves to three wins last week, extending their winning streak to five matches, and was named the America East volleyball Player of the Week. UMBC's Naomi Bush (Fruitport, Mich./Fruitport), a freshman outside hitter, gave the Retrievers control of the Rookie of the Week award for the third straight week, while teammate Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Glenlawn) captured the Setter of the Week honors.
Headen led the Seawolves to a 3-0 record last week, averaging 3.85 kills and 4.04 points per set while recording a conference-best .411 hitting percentage. For the week, the middle blocker committed just 13 errors on 90 total attacks and recorded double-digit kills in all three matches. At Brown's Invitational, Headen smacked 19 kills with only four errors against the host Bears. The next day, she hit a career-high 21 kills on a .441 attack percentage to lead the Seawolves to a 3-2 win over Holy Cross. Earlier in the week, Headen recorded 10 kills on 20 attacks against Manhattan. She also contributed five blocks and seven digs for the week.
Bush led the Retrievers in the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Terrapin Invitational, hitting .261 with 35 kills. She hit .500 in a 3-0 win over Howard on Friday with 15 kills against just one error, and then added 10 kills, seven digs and three service aces in a 3-1 win over VCU on Saturday. To cap off the weekend, she recorded her first collegiate double-double against Maryland with 10 kills and 10 digs. For the week the rookie averaged 3.18 kills and 2.00 digs per set to go along with five blocks. This is Bush's second Rookie of the Week award this season.
The senior setter averaged 10.07 assists per set while leading the Retrievers to a 3-1 record last week. In the 3-1 win over VCU on Saturday, Giles recorded a double-double with 43 assists and 10 digs, while adding three kills on five swings. She averaged 13.67 assists per set in a 3-0 win over Howard the previous day. During the four matches last week, Giles finished with 2.14 digs per set to go along with six kills, seven blocks, two aces and a .417 hitting percentage. This is her seventh career America East weekly honor, including her sixth career Setter of the Week recognition.
Also last week, University of New Hampshire's Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) became just the second player in Wildcat program history to notch 3,000 career assists, doing so in the final set of the weekend in Lundholm Gym against Arizona State.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany (5-8 overall record, 0-0 America East record) defeated host Virginia, 3-0,
in the tournament finale of the Cavalier Marriot Invitational over the weekend...
The Great Danes dropped a hard-fought five-set decision to Villanova to open
the weekend, and fell to Virginia Tech, 3-1, on Saturday... Senior outside hitter
Hillary White (Aberdeen,
S.D./Aberdeen) paced the Great Danes offensively and defensively, averaging
2.67 kills and 2.75 digs per set... Sophomore Casey Wright (Ballston Spa,
N.Y./Ballston Spa) averaged a team-high 3.30 kills per set to go along with a
.333 hitting percentage for the weekend... Junior setter Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) continued her strong quarterbacking of the
UAlbany offense en route to earning All-Tournament Team accolades for the
fourth time this season... She averaged 9.83 assists per set to go along with
1.75 digs, 1.08 kills, three total blocks, five service aces and a .310 hitting
percentage... Sophomores Laurie Gonzalez (Carolina,
Puerto Rico/St. Francis School) and Kalyn Mostert (Nepean, Ontario/Marivale)
averaged 3.00 and 2.92 digs per set, respectively... The Great Danes return to
action over the weekend at the Holiday Inn HD Tournament hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. The Great Danes will take
on the host Quakers along with St. Francis (Pa.)
and Santa Clara.
Binghamton
(6-6, 0-0 AE) went 1-2 at the West Point Challenge ... The Bearcats swept Morgan State
(5-13), but lost 3-0 to Iowa (8-4) and 3-2 to Army (12-3) ... After Binghamton's
first 12 games in 2008, the team was 3-9, but was able to finish 16-15 on the
season ... On the weekend, junior hitter Anna Lejina (Riga, Latvia/Riga
Secondary/Univ. of Latvia) provided 3.91 kills per set on a .217 hitting
percentage while also grabbing 2.36 digs per set ... Junior outside hitter
Michelle McDonough (Orland Hills, Ill./Andrew) had 3.09 kills per set 2.73 digs
per set ... Junior setter Lindsey Mueller (West Bend, Wis./West Bend West) was
named to the all-tournament team and dished out 8.82 assists per set and ranked
second on the team with 2.82 digs per set ... Senior libero Brianna Strong
(Elkhart, Ind./Concord) led the team with 4.73 digs per set from the back row ...
In BU's sweep of Morgan State, Lejina had 18 kills, hit .394 and added six
digs, and three blocks ... McDonough posted 14 kills on a .419 clip, and added 12
digs against Morgan State ... In BU's five-set loss to Army, Lejina had 20 kills
and 10 digs, McDonough had 16 kills, Mueller had 42 assists and Strong had 26
digs ... Mueller added 35 assists in the sweep of Morgan State and was named to
the all-tournament team at the West Point Challenge. This weekend the Bearcats
will play Central Connecticut and Yale at
Yale's tournament and will also take on Quinnipiac.
The Hartford volleyball team (5-7,
0-0 AE) dropped three matches last week all in four sets to Rhode
Island, Boston College and Connecticut all at the Boston College Invitational ...
Against Rhode Island, the Hawks picked up a victory in the first set, 25-23,
before falling by scores of 23-25, 20-25 and 18-25 ... Against the tournament host
Eagles, the Hawks victory came in the third set after dropping the first two by
scores of 18-25 and 16-25 ... After winning set three by a 25-22 final, the Hawks
fell by way of a 21-25 score in set four ... In the final match of the tournament
the Hawks defeated Connecticut in the first set by a 25-22 score and then
dropped the match with scores of 25-22, 25-17 and 25-15, playing just thirty
minutes after the BC match ... For the week, senior middle hitter Erin Macro (Lincoln, R.I./Lincoln) led
the Hawks with 29 kills and a .356 attack percentage with only eight errors in
87 total attempts for the weekend ... She also led the Hawks blocking efforts
with 13 total blocks, three solo blocks and 10 block assists ... Also hitting
well for the Hawks was rookie Kami
Nethersole (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) who finished with 29 total
kills, putting down double-digit kills against Rhode Island with 12 ... The
Hawks will play three matches in the coming week, the first on the road at
Bryant on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. before heading to Columbia University for
a tri-match with the Lions and Cornell ... The tri-match will begin at 4:30 p.m.
on Saturday.
UMBC
(6-7, 0-0 AE) went 3-1 on the week, including 2-1 in the Spring
Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Terrapin Invitational... The Retrievers recorded
victories over Morgan State, Howard and VCU before falling to Maryland... Rookie of the Week Naomi Bush (Fruitport, Mich./Fruitport) led the Retrievers over the
weekend, hitting .261 with 35 kills... She hit an outstanding .500 in a 3-0 win
over Howard with 15 kills against just one error, and added 10 kills, seven
digs and three service aces in a 3-1 win over VCU... Sophomore Alyssa Lang
(Richmond, Va./Deep Run) led the team with 43 kills on the week, including a
17-kill, 13-dig performance in the win over VCU... Setter of the week, senior Kira Giles (Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada/Glenlawn) recorded a double-double with 43 assists and
10 digs, while adding three kills on five swings in the 3-1 win over VCU...
Senior Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) moved up to fourth
all-time in UMBC history in career attacks over the weekend, and now has
3,487... Junior Sabrina Hoeks (Olympia, Wash./AG West Black Hills) hit a team
season-high five service aces against Morgan State on Wednesday... The
Retrievers have just one match this coming week, travelling to Harrisonburg,
Va. to face James Madison on Tuesday at 7 p.m... Oscars will make her 100th
appearance for the Retrievers if she plays.
University of New Hampshire (4-8, 0-0 AE) went
2-2 during the week opening with back-to-back wins over Bryant (3-1) and
Wyoming (3-1), before closing out the week with a pair of losses to Harvard and
Arizona State on Saturday... Kate Uitti (Pinckney, Mich.) highlighted the week
for New Hampshire as she became just the second player in program history to
surpass 3,000 assist for her career... Uitti, who was named to the All-Tournament
team, posted 126 helpers on the week including her 3,000th which
came in the final set of the weekend against Arizona State... The week also
marked the return of America East All-Conference selection Kirsten Bates
(Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll)... Bates had a team-high 40 kills during the
week despite seeing limited action in her return on Tuesday night at Bryant... Bates is another Wildcat approaching a milestone
as she is now just 122 kills away from 1,000 for her storied career... In the win
over Bryant, Lauren
Laquerre (Concord, N.H./Concord) registered a match-high 12
kills...In addition to Laquerre, classmate Pauline Acres (Manhattan Beach,
Calif./Mira Costa) notched 10 kills and five digs...Uitti paced the Wildcat offense with 38 assists, while defensively Sara Heldman
(Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) tallied 16 digs... New Hampshire opened play at
the second-annual Holly Young Invitational with a dramatic 3-1 win over
Mountain West foe Wyoming... Against the Cowgirls, Laquerre
and Bates
registered 16 and 14 kills, respectively... Laquerre hit at a .282 clip for the
match and added a pair of blocks, while Bates also had two blocks and chipped
in defensively with nine digs. Starsha Tunstall (East Providence,
R.I./East Providence) posted a career-high five kills, hit at a .300 clip and
had a team-best five blocks... In a 3-1 loss to Harvard, Bates
led the way offensively with 11 kills... Despite the loss to Harvard, the Wildcats
still had a chance at the tournament title, but came up short against Pac-10
foe Arizona State, 3-0... The Wildcats return to action on Tuesday evening when
they travel to non-conference foe Northeastern University... They compete in the
Providence Tournament this weekend before beginning America East play in early
October.
Stony
Brook (7-8, 0-0 AE) won all three of its matches this week, defeating Manhattan, 3-0, Brown, 3-2, and Holy Cross,
3-2... Stony Brook opened the week with a sweep of Manhattan, receiving double-digit kills from
senior Harmonie Calinda and junior Ashley Headen... The Seawolves then traveled
to the Brown Invitational, winning a pair of marathon matches over Brown and
Holy Cross... Despite receiving 26 kills from Calinda, it was the Seawolves
defense that led the way in the win over Brown, recording 116 digs, the second
most in school history... Junior Jeanette Gibbs led five Seawolves in
double-digit digs with 27... In the win over Holy Cross, Headen recorded a
career-best 21 kills while freshman Corinne Perry tied her career-high in
assists with 54... Gibbs had 24 digs in the win, she averaged 4.69 digs per set
during the week.
America East: Developing Champions in Academics, Athletics and Leadership