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Baltimore, Md. -- Anouk Van Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) had a combined 37 kills on .390 hitting and freshman Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) had 93 assists in eight sets as the UMBC Volleyball (5-2, 4-2 AE) team earned a hard-fought split on Sunday. The Retrievers battled back from down two-sets before falling in five (25-22, 25-21, 15-25, 21-25, 16-14) to defending champion UAlbany (7-1, 6-0 AE), before sweeping Binghamton (25-20, 25-22, 25-21).

Against the defending champs Van Noord led UMBC with 20 kills on 3.27 hitting, while freshman Darina Kumanova (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) had 13 kills and 14 digs to help lead the charge on offense. Michela De Marzi (Milan, Italy) had 11 kills, five digs and three blocks, while classmate Beste Ayhan (Istanbul, Turkey) had a career-best eight blocks to go with three kills. 

Sophomore Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) had 12 kills and a career-high nine digs in the attempted comeback. Graduate student libero Loren Teter (Redondo Beach, Calif) collected 19 digs, and Miller had 47 assists and 10 digs for her third career double-double. Sophomore defensive specialist Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) had the second-best match of her career, tallying 12 digs. 

The Retrievers dominated Binghamton (0-4, 0-4 AE) in the nightcap, hitting .385 for the match. Van Noord finished with 17 kills on an efficient .500 hitting, which was slightly better than the 17 kills on .414 hitting that Kumanova tallied. 

Miller had one of the most impressive matches by a setter in the NCAA this year, tallying 46 assists while the team hit .529 on her assist attempts. The 46 assists were third-most in a three set match in the NCAA this year. 

Teter was the only player in the match with double-digit digs, finishing with 20. Ayhan tied her career high with six kills on .455 hitting, while Ferketic had eight kills (five in the third) on .312 hitting. De Marzi picked up four kills and five blocks, and Tomas had eight digs, 

The Retrievers now hit the road for the penultimate and biggest weekend of the abbreviated season. UMBC will play a pod at NJIT with the host Highlanders and New Hampshire beginning next Sunday in Newark, N.J. They will play a total of four games over two days, as they face both teams once each day.