CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- The UMBC duo of freshman middle blocker Dalton Tolliver (Ortonville, Mich./Notre Dame Prep) and senior setter Allie Spaay (Kenosha, Wis./Kenosha Tremper) takes home the America East weekly volleyball awards for the week ending November 6. Tolliver paced the offense to earn Player and Rookie of the Week honors, while Spaay directed the attack to earn the Setter of the Week nod.
Tolliver stepped up for UMBC in two important wins which kept the Retrievers alive for an America East Championship berth. The rookie middle blocker averaged 4.29 kills and 5.00 points per set while hitting with .463 efficiency. In wins against New Hampshire and Hartford, Tolliver also added six total blocks and two service aces.
Against the second-place Wildcats, Tolliver led the Retrievers with 13 kills, two aces and .611 hitting in the sweep at home. In Sunday afternoon's battle against the Hawks which the Retrievers won 3-1, she was a force throughout, but particularly in the third set when she finished with six kills, hit .500 and picked up three block assists. She totaled a career-high 17 kills for the match.
For the season, Tolliver is second on the team with 2.43 kills per set as well as blocks with 74.0 total rejections.
In the last two home matches of her career, Spaay quarterbacked UMBC to two key victories. The senior averaged a league-best 11.71 assists per set along with 2.4 digs per set, six blocks and four kills. She led UMBC to a team hitting percentage of .278 and a conference-high 15.29 kills per set last week.
Spaay began the weekend with 34 assists, four digs, two blocks and an ace while setting up the Retrievers to a .398 hitting mark in a sweep of New Hampshire. In a Sunday afternoon match against Hartford, Spaay recorded her 13th double-double of the season with 48 assists and 13 digs. She also added four blocks and three kills to her performance in the four-set win.
Spaay has a career-high 875 assists this season, averaging 9.21 per set. She also ranks seventh on UMBC's all-time assists list with 2,167.
The Regular-Season Championship will come down to the final weekend of play as Albany and New Hampshire meet for the second time this season on Friday night. An Albany win means a fourth-straight regular-season crown for the Great Danes, while a UNH win keeps the Wildcats' hopes alive for the top seed. New Hampshire will need to win out and Albany to then lose to Hartford on Sunday to host the league tournament as the top seed.
While Albany and UNH jockey for the top two spots. Stony Brook, UMBC and Binghamton will jostle for the final two seeds in the four-team America East Championship. The Seawolves have clinched a berth but can be seeded either third or fourth. The Bearcats can get in as high as a three seed, but are not guaranteed a berth unless they win their final two matches over Hartford and New Hampshire. UMBC is also still fighting for its life, but can still slide into the tournament as the four seed with possession of the tiebreaker over both Binghamton and Hartford.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (17-8, 9-1 AE) continued its win streak, defeating cross-town rival Siena, 3-0, on Wednesday and league opponent Providence, 3-1, on the road on Sunday... The Great Danes have now won six straight and 17 of their last 19 matches... Casey Wright (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa) led the Great Danes offensively, averaging 3.43 kills per set, while hitting .629 in the two matches. Wright also recorded five total blocks, including three solo... Setter Brooke Stanley (Hendersonville, N.C./West Henderson) quarterbacked the Great Danes to a .292 hitting percentage as a team, averaging 11.00 assists per set. The senior recorded her sixth double-double of the season against Providence, totaling 55 assists and 12 digs... Libero Laurie Gonzalez (Carolina, Puerto Rico/St. Francis School) averaged 6.00 digs per set, including her second-highest dig total of the season with 29 against Providence... Traci Vandegrift (Mogodore, Ohio/Field) added 2.71 kills and three total blocks on the week... As a team, Albany served up 10 aces in the two matches, led by Stanley's three, while their opponents combined for seven... Albany closes out the regular season with two home matches, hosting New Hampshire on Friday and Hartford on Sunday.
Binghamton (12-16, 4-6 AE) won its only match of the week in the form of a four-set road victory over Providence last Friday... Led by Kristin Hovie (Neenah, Wis./Neenah) and junior middle Alex Roland (Austin, Tex./Austin), the Bearcats kept their slim playoff chances alive... Hovie recorded a match-high 15 kills, while Roland chipped in 14 of her own... Freshman setter Amanda Dettmann (Milwaukee, Wis./Divine Savior Holy Angels) handed out 41 assists and picked up 11 digs for her tenth double-double of the season... Binghamton, currently on the outside looking in of the playoff chase, needs to win out and get some help if they want to advance to their eighth straight conference tournament... The Bearcats host Hartford, Friday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. then honor their seniors on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. as New Hampshire comes to West Gym.
The Hartford volleyball team (12-16, 3-7 AE) dropped a pair of matches last week, both in conference play... The Hawks were led in both matches by junior outside hitter Kami Nethersole (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) who finished with double figure kills in both matches with 12 against Stony Brook and 17 at UMBC; They were the 18th and 19th straight double figure matches for Nethersole. With the 29 kills this past week, Nethersole is now 12 shy of hitting her 1,000th career kill... Freshman setter Jackie Tamburri (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) continued her march up the single-season records with 68 assists last week, putting her 57 shy of setting the individual season record for assists since the start of rally scoring and passing Danielle Scoggin who had 1,194 in 2002... The Hawks return to action this weekend with a pair of league matches that close out the regular season, both on the road. The first comes on Friday night at Binghamton (7 p.m.) before heading to conference-leading Albany on Sunday at 2 p.m.
UMBC (15-11, 5-6 AE) picked up two key home wins over the weekend, sweeping New Hampshire 3-0 Friday night and defeating Hartford 3-1 Sunday afternoon during Senior Day… Senior setter Allie Spaay (Kenosha, Wis./Kenosha Tremper) came up big in her final home match recording her 13th double-double of the year with 48 assists and 13 digs while classmate Iman Kennedy (Charlotte, N.C./Independence) finished the match with 13 kills… Junior Ali Loynachan (Whitby, Ontario, Canada/Sinclair) had a huge match for the Retrievers against the Hawks picking up her third double-double of the year with 11 kills and 24 digs, while also recording six assists… UMBC had a great defensive effort with 11.0 total team blocks and 94 digs led by Loynachan’s 24 and Ali Goc (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada/R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate) who registered 20… Freshman Dalton Tolliver (Ortonville, Mich./Notre Dame Prep) led the attack all weekend for UMBC recording a career-high 17 kills Sunday against Hartford after notching 13 Friday night against New Hampshire… Against the Wildcats, Tolliver hit .611 and had two service aces while against the Hawks she hit .389 and had five block assists… For the match, UMBC hit .398 against New Hampshire… The Retrievers finish their regular season schedule next Sunday when they travel to face Providence beginning at 1 p.m.
UNH (9-18, 7-3 AE) split a pair of road matches on the week, falling at UMBC, 3-0. before rallying back for a 3-2 victory at Stony Brook on Sunday... Against Stony Brook, the Wildcats won the five-set match behind a season-best .338 attack percentage, including a .600 clip in the fifth set... UNH was led by a trio of double-digit kill performances from sophomore Morgan Thatcher (Brockton, Mass.) and seniors Amy Keding (Northbrook, Ill.) and Lauren Laquerre (Concord, N.H.). Thatcher paced the Wildcats with 18 kills for a .368 hitting percentage and also added three blocks. Keding chipped in with 17 kills for a .378 hitting percentage, finishing with five digs and three blocks, while Laquerre posted 16 kills for a .400 hitting percentage and added eight digs. Junior Jansan Falcusan (Plymouth, Mich.) led the team with 48 assists, while junior Jessie Schnepp (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and freshman Sam Henke (Millersville, Md.) registered double-digit digs with 12 and 10, respectively... The Wildcats finish the regular season with a pair of road matches, traveling to Albany on Nov. 11 and Binghamton on Nov. 13.
The Friars (8-20, 2-8 AE) lost both of their matches last week to Binghamton and Albany by 3-1 margins. Providence won its first set against Albany since joining the league a year ago, when it forced a fourth set via a 25-23 victory in the third... Lauren Fletcher (Syracuse, N.Y.) is leading the Friars this season with 358 kills and is averaging an impressive 3.48 kills per set. She also owns a .328 hitting percentage and averages 1.09 blocks per set... Four other Friars have triple-digit kills on the season. Carly Morrison leads the team with 794 assists and Cassie Muzzonigro owns a team-best 490 digs.
The Seawolves (13-12, 6-5 AE) split a pair of home matches, defeating Hartford on Friday in four sets before falling to UNH in five sets on Sunday... senior Alicia Nelson (Apple Valley, Minn.) averaged 5.00 kills per set on a .305 hitting percentage for the week. Nelson had 18 kills on a .349 attack percentage in the win over Hartford. She then had a career-best 27 kills against New Hampshire... SBU hit .323 against Hartford. Stony Brook hit .135 in the first set but then hit .412, .318 and .452 in the final three sets... Senior setter Kelsey Sullivan (Hamilton, Va.) finished with 39 assists, six kills and 11 digs... Stony Brook had a season-high 13 aces against New Hampshire including seven from senior Masa Balandzic (Montenegro)... Stony Brook honored its four seniors Nelson, Sullivan, Balandzic and Jennifer Cunningham (Little Neck, N.Y.) prior to Sunday's match... SBU closes the regular season on Friday at Providence.