BALTIMORE – Playing in front of the
largest crowd to ever watch a collegiate volleyball contest at the
RAC Arena, the UMBC volleyball team fell to Colorado, 3-2 (25-17,
21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-6), in tightly played match, Friday night
on the first day of the Maddie Bingaman Tournament. The
crowd of 1,021 nearly doubled the school record that was set three
years ago at the same tournament when the Retrievers took on Long
Island and Northeastern in front of 537 spectators.
The contest was balanced throughout as the teams went back-and
forth in each set. Colorado (5-2) won the statistical
battle as the Buffaloes outhit the Retrievers (.278-.241) and had a
slight edge in digs (65-60).
Freshman Sherelle
Walker (New Freedom, Pa./Susquehannock) once again paced
the Retriever offense putting away 18 winners to record her sixth
double-digit kill effort of the season and second of the
week. Junior middle blocker Emily Witsman (Medina,
Ohio/Medina) was strong up the middle recording 13 kills and seven
block assists.
Senior Ali
Loynachan (Whitby, Ontario/Sinclair) and sophomore Hannah
Schmidt (Catonsville, Md./Mount de Sales) each registered
nine kills for UMBC (3-8) as setter Paige
Miller used six different teammates to match a career-high
with 46 assists.
Colorado setter Nicole Edelman also
got numerous parties involved en route to assisting 52
winners. Alexis
Austin and Kelsey
English topped the Buffs' offense with 16 and 15
kills, respectively.
Coming to Baltimore for the first time, Colorado ran out to a
fast start, gaining a 12-7 lead in the first set after two
Retriever attack errors. UMBC rallied quickly though,
cutting the lead to two, 15-13, on a kill by
Schmidt. The Buffs were then able to rekindle their
opening fire and ran off eight of the final ten points to win the
opener, 25-17.
The Retrievers were not intimidated, however, and battled in the
second set as the teams could not pull away from one
another. After a UMBC service error tied the set for the
last time at 18, the Retrievers streaked to five consecutive points
and finished out the set on a Colorado service error to knot the
match with a 25-21 set win.
Colorado came out in the third set in a similar fashion to the
opening frame and took a quick four point lead, 7-3, forcing a UMBC
timeout. The Buffs maintained their lead until UMBC
rallied with five straight points to take its first lead of the
set, 18-17, on a service ace from Schmidt. The
Retrievers extended their lead to 20-18, but CU used a 5-0 run to
retake the lead for good and held on to claim the set, 25-23.
The fourth set was the tightest one of the night as the teams
were tied 14 times, the last one coming at 16 all with Witsaman
knotting the score for the Retrievers. The middle
blocker then finished off a 4-0 UMBC run with another kill to put
the hosts ahead, 19-16. The back-and-forth play then
ensued as the Retrievers forced a fifth set by taking the fourth,
25-20.
In the fifth set, with the score tied at three, the visitors
made a game-changing 5-0 run to all but put away the
match. UMBC answered with two points to cut the lead to
four, 9-5, but got no closer as the Buff won the match with a 15-6
win in the fifth.
UMBC gets right back on to the court as the squad hosts James
Madison on the second day of the Maddie Bingaman Tournament, Sunday
at the RAC Arena. The Retrievers and Dukes are set to
begin at 10:30 a.m. before the Black and Gold finishes tournament
play against Howard at 4:30 p.m.
DAWG BITES
- This
was the first ever meeting between UMBC and Colorado in
volleyball.
- The
Retrievers are now 0-4 all-time against Pac-12 opponents (0-1 vs.
Colorado; 0-1 vs. USC; 0-2 vs. Washington).
- With
the win, Colorado coach Liz Kritza earned her 100th career win for
the Buffaloes.
