The UMBC Volleyball team begins America East play with two matches this weekend at Stony Brook.
UMBC (1-0) is coming off of a season-opening sweep of Coppin State last Sunday. Freshman Darina Kumanova (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) earned America East Rookie of the Week honors after recording a double-double in her collegiate debut. She had a match-best 15 kills, added 12 digs and had a perfect return percentage on 20 serve return attempts.
Classmate Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) was named America East Setter of the Week after she tallied 40 assists and averaged 13.33 assists per set. She also recorded six digs and the team hit .417 on her set attempts.
Junior Paige Krenik (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) also had a double-double for the Retrievers, finishing with 11 kills and 11 digs. Graduate student libero Loren Teter (Redondo Beach, Calif.) had a match-high 23 digs in her UMBC debut.
Stony Brook opens the weekend at 0-3 and have lost its last eight sets. The Seawolves took a 2-1 lead at St.John's in its season-opener, but lost the final two sets. SBU was then swept by Towson and Hofstra last weekend.
Freshman Leoni Kunzi paces the Stony Brook offense, hitting a team-best .317 with 24 kills. Sophomore Julia Kim has been the primary setter, averaging 8.70 assists per set, while defending America East Defensive Specialist of the Year Kiani Kerstetter leads the defense with 47 digs (4.27 digs per set).
Last season, the Retrievers were swept on Long Island in October 2019, but got revenge with a four set win at home the following month.
Live Video and Stats are available with links at UMBCRetrievers.com.
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