CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- A pair of double-double streaks are honored with week two's conference volleyball awards as Stony Brook University's Harmonie Calinda (Huntington, N.Y./John Glenn/Hofstra) received the Player of the Week award and University at Albany's Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) captured the Setter of the Week honor. UMBC freshman Naomi Bush (Fruitport, Mich./Fruitport) took home the league's Rookie of the Week award. All awards are for the week ending September 7.
Calinda extended her double-double streak to seven consecutive matches, recording double-digit kills and digs in each of the four matches this week. The senior outside hitter recorded 4.75 kills, 3.69 digs and .56 blocks per set and hit at a .238 clip last week, and was named to the Harvard Invitational All-Tournament Team over the weekend. Calinda hit a season-high 23 kills against Toledo, while tying her season best in digs with 21. She posted 21 kills, 14 digs and four blocks in the next match against Harvard, and finished the tournament with 14 kills and a .312 hitting percentage in a 3-0 sweep of Colgate. Calinda leads the conference in kills (4.31 per set) this season and ranks fourth in digs (3.66 per set).
Last year's conference Setter of the Year picks up her first weekly award of the 2009 season after being named the Most Valuable Player of the UAlbany Classic last weekend. Stanley averaged 10.90 assists and 3.90 digs per set in three matches, recording three straight double-doubles and leading the Great Danes to a 3-0 record at their home tournament. She also hit at a .240 clip and smacked four aces. Stanley recorded 30 assists and 11 digs, along with three kills against Hofstra Friday evening, then totaled 31 assists and 11 digs along with three kills and two service aces versus Seton Hall on Saturday. She closed out the tournament with a season-high 48 assists and 17 digs in addition to two service aces against Lamar.
The freshman outside hitter led the Retrievers last weekend against top-100 RPI competition at the Long Beach/UC Irvine Invitational, recording 30 kills and 19 digs in nine sets. Bush recorded 34 points last week, tops on the team. In her UMBC debut, she hit .300 with 10 kills against Long Beach State, before following that up with 12 kills and seven digs in a 3-0 win over Indiana State. The freshman concluded the weekend with a bang, hitting .350 against #20 UC Irvine with eight kills and nine digs. Bush finished the week hitting .297 overall.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany (3-3 overall record, 0-0 America East record) went undefeated at the UAlbany
Classic... The Great Danes defeated Hofstra and Seton Hall, 3-0, before dropping
one set to Lamar for a 3-1 victory... Setter of the Week Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville,
N.C./West Henderson)
was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after averaging 10.90 assists... Stanley recorded three
straight double-doubles, as she also averaged a team-high 3.90 digs per set
over the weekend... In the tournament finale versus Lamar, Stanley set season-highs with 48 assists and
17 digs... Junior Teresa Coppiellie (Canton, Mich./Salem)
and senior Valerie Sourbeer (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center/Pacific) were also named to the
All-Tournament Team along with senior Hillary White (Aberdeen,
S.D./Aberdeen/Colorado State)... Coppiellie averaged 3.22 kills and 3.11 digs per
set, including back-to-back double-doubles on Saturday... Freshman Traci
Vandegrift (Mogodore, Ohio/Field) recorded 1.80 kills and 0.90
blocks per set... Vandegrift, who hit .265 for the weekend, had a team-high nine
total blocks, including four solo stuffs... The Great Danes return to action over
the weekend, visiting the Miami/FIU Invitational... UAlbany will play co-hosts Miami and Florida International along with Florida State and Middle Tennessee.
Binghamton (2-4, 0-0) was swept in three straight
matches this weekend at the Marquette Challenge ... BU lost to Austin Peay
(25-13, 25-19, 25-13), lost to Butler (25-21, 25-20, 25-20) and also fell to
Marquette (25-22, 25-16, 25-20) ... Junior Anna Lejina (Riga, Latvia/Riga
Secondary School/University of Latvia) continued her impressive start to the
2009 season by posting 4.00 kills per set and pushing her double-digit kills
streak to five matches ... She has led or tied BU in kills in every match this
season ... Senior libero Brianna Strong (Elkhart, Ind./Concord) continued to
anchor the back line for the Bearcats and is now averaging 5.15 digs ... Strong
also posted 23 digs in just three sets against Austin Peay ... Binghamton will
host Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson and Towson this weekend at the Binghamton
Invite in the West Gym ... This is the first time the Bearcats have hosted a
tournament since 2004.
The Hartford volleyball team (4-4,
0-0) finished a five match week with a 2-3 overall record ... They
opened the week with a four set loss (24-26, 25-20, 17-25, 17-25) to Marist in
the home opener at the Sports Center before heading to New Britain, Conn. for the
CCSU Blue Devils Invitational where they dropped a three-set match (17-25,
11-25, 18-25) to NJIT to open the tournament ... The next day the Hawks split two
matches, winning in five sets (25-23, 24-26, 22-25, 25-13, 15-13) against
Manhattan and dropping a three set (22-25, 16-25, 23-25) match to the host Blue
Devils ... Hartford then closed out the week with a three-set home win over Holy
Cross on Labor Day (25-15, 25-20, 25-22) ... For the week, Erin Macro (Lincoln, RI/Lincoln) led all the Hawks hitters,
finishing with 62 kills and recording double digit kills in all but one of the
five matches ... The senior put up a season-high 16 in the loss to Central
Connecticut ... Freshman Kami Nethersole
(Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) finished second on the team with 62
kills, scoring double digit kills in two matches, including a career-high 16
against Manhattan ... Two other players set career highs on the week, junior
setter Lindsay Ford (Carson,
Nev./Carson) set a new career mark with 52 assists against the Jaspers, while
sophomore defensive specialist Danielle
Etta (Cold Spring, N.Y./Haldane) finished the Manhattan match with 24 digs, a
season-high for all players ... The Hawks will play just one match this week,
welcoming the St. Francis College (NY) Terriers to the Sports Center on
Saturday at 2 p.m. ... Hartford will then welcome their alumni back to the
West Hartford campus for an Alumni Day match on Sunday, September 13.
UMBC
(2-3, 0-0) traveled to the West Coast last week to take part in
the Long Beach State/UC Irvine Invitational, where they defeated Indiana State,
but fell to Long Beach State and #20 UC Irvine... Rookie of the Week Naomi Bush (Fruitport,
Mich./Fruitport) had an outstanding debut weekend, leading the Retrievers with
30 kills and was second on the team with 19 digs... A trio of seniors moved up on
the all-time UMBC top-10 lists over the weekend... Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield,
Calif/Liberty) is now sixth all-time with 1,081 kills, Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada/Glenlawn)
is now seventh with 162 assisted blocks, while Pam Jarrett (Lincoln,
Neb./Lincoln Pius X) has moved up to ninth on the career digs list with 945...
Sophomore Iman Kennedy (Charlotte, N.C./Independence) had a solid week, leading
UMBC in hitting percentage at .312 and blocks per set with 1.22. Against
Indiana State, the sophomore earned a season-high six total blocks and hit .412
with nine kills... The Retrievers return to action Wednesday when they face
George Mason at home at 7 p.m. before taking part in the Villanova Tournament
where they will take on George Washington, Princeton and host Villanova.
University of New Hampshire (1-5, 0-0) went 1-2
officially and won an exhibition contest last week... The Wildcats opened the
week with a sweep of Bentley University... Lindsay Fogarty (Pleasanton,
Calif./Amador Valley) and Lauren Laquerre (Concord, N.H./Concord) registered 11 and
10 kills, respectively, and each added four blocks... Kate Uitti
(Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney) tallied six kills, six digs, five blocks, a
team-high 18 assists and hit at a .364 clip in a 3-1 loss to Texas Christian
University at the UConn Classic Friday night... On Saturday, UNH split a pair of
matches falling to UConn (3-1) before defeating Long Island (3-0) in the final
day of competition at the UConn Classic... In the Connecticut match, Fogarty and
Justine
Elliott (Mitchellville, Md./St. John's College) recorded 12
kills, four blocks and 10 kills, five blocks, respectively for the Wildcats... Uitti
added five kills, 31 assists and 18 digs, while Sara Heldman (Greenwood, Ind./Center
Grove), who was named to the All-Tournament team of the UConn Classic, was the
defensive leader with 22 digs... Against LIU, it was once against Fogarty pacing
the offense with 14 kills, four blocks and a .321 hitting percentage... In
addition, Pauline
Acres (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa) tallied 11 kills and
a pair of blocks... Uitti tallied a season-high 41 assists and added nine digs,
while Heldman anchored the Wildcat defense with 21 digs... UNH returns to action
next weekend (Sept. 11-12) at the URI Tournament... The Wildcats open on
Friday, Sept. 11 (7 p.m.) against the host Rams. They will also play Brown (11
a.m.) and Syracuse (4 p.m.) on Saturday.
Stony
Brook (1-6, 0-0) picked up its first win of the 2009 season with a 3-0 sweep of
Colgate at the Harvard Invitational... Player of the Week Harmonie Calinda, who was named to
the Invitational All-Tournament team, led the Seawolves with 14 kills... Senior
Lisa Doremus (12 kills) and junior Ashley Headen (10 kills) also had
double-digit kills... In SBU's opening match of the Harvard Invitational it took
Toledo to five games, eventually dropping the final set, 15-13... freshman
Corinne Perry recorded her first career double-double with 54 assists and 11
digs... Three other Seawolves also picked up double-digit digs... Stony Brook
dropped its third match of the Invitational, 3-1, against Harvard... The
Seawolves opened the week by taking BIG EAST opponent, St. John's, to four sets... Ashley Headen paced
the offense with a .385 attack percentage.
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