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DURHAM, N.H. – Top-seeded New Hampshire and third-seeded Albany will meet for the 2014 America East Volleyball Championship title on Saturday after advancing with wins in their respective semifinal matches on Friday evening at Lundholm Gym in Durham, N.H.
No. 3 Albany advanced to their ninth title game in 11 years with a four-set win over No. 2 Binghamton, while No. 1 New Hampshire beat No. 4 seed Stony Brook in four sets to advance to the final for the second-straight year.
The Great Danes and the Wildcats will play the2014 America East Volleyball Championship match at 2 p.m. on Saturday. It will be available live for free on AmericaEast.TV. Recap the semifinal matches:
No. 3 Albany 3, No. 2 Binghamton 1
(25-16, 25-23, 15-25, 25-23)
Box Score
The third-seeded Albany Great Danes advanced to their ninth America East final in 11 years with a four-set win over No. 2 Binghamton in the first America East Championship semifinal on Friday in Durham, N.H.
Amy Hunter led Albany (10-15) with 16 kills while Amanda Dolan added 13 kills and five blocks. The match finished with set scores of 25-16, 25-23, 15-25 and 25-23.
Binghamton (9-19) had its season end to Albany in the America East Championship for the first time since 2008. First-Team All-Conference selection Allison Hovie led the Bearcats with 16 kills and 17 digs and was the only player on either side with a double-double in the match.
Albany outhit Binghamton .178 to .145 in the semifinal while finishing with nine team blocks. Setter Mikala McCauley had 41 assists and nine digs and the team finished with 80 digs.
Albany started the opening set with a 10-3 lead on a .462 hitting percentage. Binghamton got two-straight points coming out of a timeout with a kill by Alexis LaGoy and an attack error, but could not get any closer as the Great Danes took the first frame, 25-16. Hunter had four kills in the first set while Dolan and Leindecker each had three. Albany hit .270 in the set while holding Binghamton to an .077 hitting percentage.
After Binghamton went up 10-7 in the second set, Albany came back to tie it with three-straight points with Tatum Jungsten finishing the run with a kill. The sides traded points until the set was knotted at 16 and Albany strung together four-straight points on kills by Jungsten and Hunter and an ace by Emily Lopes.
Binghamton fought back to even the set at 22 following a kill by Allison Hovie before Dolan took over for the Great Danes, tallying two blocks and a kill for the final three points and giving the Albany a 25-23 set win.
Down 2-0, Binghamton dominated the third set, outhitting Albany .387 to .156 in the frame. Allison Hovie had six kills and four digs while sister Kristin Hovie had three kills and LaGoy added four. Albany led early in the set, but Binghamton won 14 of the final 17 points to finish with a 25-15 victory.
The fourth set was tightly contested throughout with neither side leading by more than four points at any time. Albany took the biggest lead of the set at 15-11 with a shot 4-1 run midway through.
The Hovie sisters brought Binghamton back with a pair of kills late that knotted the set at 22 as the Bearcats looked for force a fifth set.
Tied at 23, Hunter and Jungsten recorded back-to-back kills, sending Albany to the 2014 America East volleyball final.
No. 1 New Hampshire 3, No. 4 Stony Brook 1
(23-25, 25-13, 25-11, 25-20)
Box Score
The reigning America East champion New Hampshire Wildcats advanced to the 2014 volleyball title match with a four set win over No. 4 Stony Brook in the second semifinal on Friday evening. It will be the second-straight trip to the title match for the Wildcats who are looking for their fifth America East championship.
After Stony Brook won the first set, New Hampshire took the next three with tremendous offensive efficiency, finishing with a .243 hitting percentage including hitting .333 over the final three sets. Brenna Buckwalter led the charge with 13 kills and America East Player and Setter of the Year, Taylor Dunklau, had 41 assists and 10 digs as one of three Wildcats to record a double-double.
Demi Muses added 12 kills with 13 digs and eight blocks and Tori Forrest had 11 kills and 14 digs to also notch double-doubles.
Melissa Rigo led Stony Brook with 15 kills and 10 digs and Kathy Fletcher notched a double-double of her own with 12 kills and 10 digs. Setter Nicole Vogel finished with 29 assists and 16 digs.
Stony Brook came storming from behind to win the first set, tallying nine of the final 10 points to win the frame, 25-23, after trailing 22-16. Fletcher had five kills in the set while Vogel had 12 assists. The Seawolves’ defense also held UNH to an .061 hitting percentage.
New Hampshire was almost flawless over the next two sets, bouncing back with a 25-13 victory in set two. The Wildcats had just one error on 28 swings with 10 kills for a .321 hitting percentage. Stony Brook also had 14 errors in the set despite six kills from Rigo.
It was more of the same from the Wildcats in the third set, this time hitting .433 in a 25-11 win to take a two-sets-to-one lead. Once again New Hampshire recorded just one error on 30 swings with 14 kills. Abby Brinkman, Forrest and Buckwalter each had three kills while Dunklau had 11 assists.
The Seawolves pushed UNH in the fourth set as they looked to even the match. Rigo continued her strong play with five kills and the team improved its hitting percentage but it was not enough in a 25-20 fourth set loss.
New Hampshire held a seven-point lead at 16-9 before the Seawolves came back to get within one at 18-17. Stephanie McFadden and Shelby Tietjen each served four of those points.
The Wildcats then closed it out with three kills by Muses coupled with four attack errors to take the set and the match.