Vestal, N.Y -- The UMBC Volleyball team (3-0, 2-0 AE) will begin America East pod play this Sunday when it travels to Binghamton for matches against the host Bearcts and defending champion UAlbany.
The Retrievers will face Binghamton at 11 a.m. and then UAlbany at 3 p.m. The three teams will then play another three game pod next Sunday at UMBC.
After taking two five-setters at Stony Brook this weekend, a trio of newcomers helped the UMBC Volleyball team (3-0, 2-0 AE) sweep the America East weekly awards, the Conference announced Tuesday.
Freshman Darina Kumanova (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), coming off of being named America East Rookie of the Week last week, was named America East Player of the Week, while classmate Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) earned her second consecutive Setter of the Week honor in addition to taking home the Rookie of the Week award. Graduate student libero Loren Teter (Redondo Beach, Calif.) used a career-weekend to nab Defensive Specialist of the Week honors.
Kumanova had 23 kills and 18 digs to help the Retrievers win three-straight sets on Saturday after being down 2-0. For the weekend, she had 32 kills and 29 digs, and averaged 3.2 kills per set on the weekend and leads the conference in that category this season.
Miller set a freshman school record with 55 assists (10th most in a match all-time on Saturday against Stony Brook. For the weekend she totaled 102 assists, with the team hitting .370 on her sets, and 33 digs, including a match best 23 DIGS on Sunday. She had 10 assists and the team hit .500 on her sets in the fifth set on Sunday.
Teter tallied 44 digs in two wins over Stony Brook, including a career-high 26 on Sunday which not only was the 10th most in a single-match in UMBC history, but is also tied for most in by an #AEVB player this season. She had match-highs in digs on both Saturday and Sunday, andThis is her first career Defensive Specialist of the Week honor.
Scouting Binghamton:
This will be the Bearcats first match of the season as their road doubleheader against Hartford last Friday afternoon was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols inside the Hartford program.
Binghamton went 0-23 and 0-10 in America East play in 2019, with UMBC sweeping both matchups.
The squad returns 12 players, including senior Francela Ulate, who was ranked first in the America East and 10th in the nation in service aces per set a season ago. The team also added three newcomers.
Scouting UAlbany:
The defending champion Great Danes are 3-1 on the season, including a 2-0 mark in America East play after defeating New Hampshire and NJIT in four and five sets, respectively, last weekend. UAlbany was picked to repeat in the preseason coaches poll and and returns three players, Danielle Tedesco, Noa Brach and Malea Stanton, who earned 2019 All-Conference Selections. Tedesco was named First Team All-Conference after her 99 regular season blocks helped the Great Danes rank No. 21 in the nation in blocks. Brach and Stanton earned All-Rookie selections after they ranked third in the America East with 106 blocks and 601 assists, respectively.
