Loyola (Md.) Match Notes

BALTIMORE -- Carmen Freeman (Memphis, Tenn.) set a career high with 22 kills on .417 hitting to rally the UMBC Volleyball team past Canisius in four sets (18-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-22) on Friday night at the Charm City Challenge hosted by Loyola (Md.). In the morning, the Retrievers (3-5) had career days from Niki Kohshatefeh (Temecula, Calif.) and Brooke Hayden (Mt.Airy, Md.), but fell to Charlotte in four sets. (25-22, 20-25, 29-27, 25-20).

Against Canisius (2-6), Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.) had 14 kills on .385 hitting, while Anouk Van Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Franchesca Reed (Aurora, Colo.) picked up seven kills each. Khoshatefeh added five kills on .308 hitting and Taylor Dunn (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Riley Putnicki (Monument, Colo.) split time at setter, finishing with 28 and 23 assists, respectively. Putnicki added seven digs to go with her 23 assists, both career-bests.

Sophomore Gabrielle Curran (Naples, Fla.) tied a career-high with 12 digs, while Hayden had 17 digs to go with a career-high five aces. Junior Becca Elrod (Cary, Ill.) had a season-best five kills on .500 hitting. Freshman Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added two kills and a block for the Retrievers.

After each team made quick work of the other in the first two sets to send the teams into intermission tied at one, Canisius appeared in control as it jumped out to a 17-11 lead in the third. A Van Noord kill, Hayden ace and three straight kills from Freeman cut the Golden Griffins lead to 17-16. After an attack error pushed the lead back to two, the Retrievers would go on a 4-0 run thanks to two Elrod kills, a Freeman kill and an attack error to go up 20-18 and force a Canisius timeout. The teams then alternated points until a Conteh kill gave UMBC the set.

In the fourth set, the Griffs again jumped out to a big lead, going up 5-1 early and forcing an early UMBC timeout. The Retrievers again fought back and eventually took a 13-12 lead on a Hayden ace. Canisius would tie the set at 14, before a 3-0 run gave UMBC a lead it would not relinquish. 

In the match against Charlotte (5-5), Freeman finished with 17 kills and 14 assists, while Hayden had a career-high 20 digs. Khoshatefeh had the best match of her young career, finishing with 11 kills on .500 hitting. Reed had eight blocks, including two solo, to become just the eighth Retriever in program history to eclipse 250 career blocks (257). 

UMBC and host Loyola (4-5) will faceoff at 2 p.m. tomorrow for the Charm City Challenge title.