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BALTIMORE – For the second straight
season the UMBC volleyball team defeated Hartford on Senior Day,
this time in three sets (25-20, 25-15, 25-18), Sunday afternoon at
the RAC Arena. The Retrievers downed the Hawks a year
ago in four sets in their final home match of the season.
With the win, UMBC improves to 14-14 overall this season and 7-4
in America East play while Hartford falls to 8-18 this season and
2-8 in conference contests.
The Retrievers held the Hawks to just an .018 hitting percentage
while hitting .231 themselves. UMBC also out-blocked the
visitors nine to five.
Freshman Krystal
Mlemchukwu (Baltimore, Md./Western Tech) led a balanced
UMBC offense with a match-best ten kills while sophomore Hannah
Schmidt (Catonsville, Md./Mount de Sales) posted a
contest-high 17 digs. Junior Ali Goc (Oshawa,
Ontario/R.S. McLaughlin) also picked up double-digit digs with 12
and junior Hallie
Carter (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison) just missed out
on a double-double with nine kills and nine digs.
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Senior Katie
Kelly
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Hartford's Dionna Kirton picked up a
team-best six kills to go along with ten digs with
setter Jackie Tamburri registered a
double-double with 21 assists and ten digs.
The visitors took the early advantage in the opening frame,
winning four out the first five points, to take an early 4-1
lead. UMBC hung tough though and chipped away at the lead,
eventually knotting the score at 9-9 on a Hartford attack
error. The Hawks answered with three straight points,
only to see the Retrievers claim seven of the next eight to reclaim
the lead. The seesaw battle continued though with
Hartford running off four consecutive points for a 17-16
lead. After the two squads tied for the sixth and final
time at 18-18, UMBC took advantage of Robbin Lee's (Olney,
Md./Sherwood) strong serving to win seven of the final nine points
for a 25-20 set win.
The Retrievers carried the momentum into the second set opening
up an early 5-2 lead and maintained it at 10-7 with a kill by
Carter. Hartford rallied, however, and cut the lead to
just two, 14-12, forcing a UMBC timeout. Coming out of
the break, UMBC ripped off five straight to essentially end the
set, and then finished it off on a kill by senior Katie
Kelly (Diamond Bar, Calif./Diamond Bar) for a 25-15 win in the
second set.
Hartford came out of the extended break by winning the first two
points, but UMBC took control with 11 of the next 12 points to
stake to an 11-3 lead. The Hawks finally won
back-to-back points to close the gap to 16-7, but an Ali
Loynachan (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair) kill stymied the
run. With UMBC leading 21-10, Hartford put together a
run, but the hosts did enough to close out the match by winning the
third set 25-18 on a kill from Kelly.
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Senior Ali
Loynachan
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UMBC now heads to Long Island to close out its regular season at
Stony Brook on Friday, Nov. 9. The Retrievers and Seawolves
are set to begin at 3 p.m. at Pritchard Gymnasium.
DAWG BITES
- Prior
to the match, UMBC honored its two seniors, Katie
Kelly and Ali Loynachan, with a senior
ceremony. Kelly and Loynachan each notched six kills in
the match.
- UMBC
now leads the all-time series versus Hartford 20-2 and has won each
of the last three meetings.
- The
Retrievers also lead the all-time conference series against the
Hawks, 18-2.
- Goc's
12 digs lifts her career total to 981, the tenth-highest in school
history.
