The UMBC Volleyball team hits the road for the penultimate and biggest weekend of the abbreviated season, as they head to New Jersey to face NJIT and New Hampshire. They will play each team twice over two days, beginning Sunday against UNH at 11 a.m. followed by a match with the hosts at 2 p.m. They then face NIT at 1 0 a.m. on Monday, followed by UNH at 4 p.m.
For the the third time in only four weeks of play, freshman Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) was been named America East Setter of the Week. She was also named America East Rookie of the Week for the second time, the second instance this season that she took home both awards in the same week (March 2). Miller averaged 11.63 assists per set and compiled a league-high 93 assists in two matches. She totaled 47 in five sets against UAlbany and followed with 46 in only three sets against Binghamton. UMBC (5-2, 4-2 AE) hit .529 on her set attempts against Binghamton and .371 for both matches combined. She had a double-double (47 ast & 10 digs) and three kills in the five-set loss to UAlbany, in which the Retrievers rallied from two sets down to nearly knock-off the undefeated in conferenc-play defending champions.
Anouk Van Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) had a combined 37 kills on .390 hitting for the day. Multple players had great performances against UAlbany, as 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 sophomore defensive specialist Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) had the second-best match of her career, tallying 12 digs.
Scouting New Hampshire
The Wildcats are 2-2 overall and in conference after splitting a pair of matches at Stony Brook last weekend. UNH opened the season by defeating NJIT in four sets before falling in four to host UAlbany.
Junior Abby Sullivan leads the Wildcat offense with 44 kills, a .379 hitting percentage, and averaging a team-best 2.93 kills per set. Freshman libero Mia Pagliarini paces the defense, averaging 3.71 digs per set, with 52 digs overall.
Scouting NJIT
The Highlanders are in their first season in the America East and are 0-7 overall, including an 0-6 mark in America East play. NJIT's first ever conference match went down to the wire, as they fell on the road at UAlbany in five sets. They then lost in four sets to New Hampshire, and have been swept in four straight to Hartford and Stony Brook.
Freshman Elley Torres has a team-high 61 kills and is averaging 2.54 kills per set. On defense, fellow freshman Kaitlyn Arias has 106 digs while averaging 4.42 digs per set.
