Vestal, N.Y. -- The UMBC Volleyball team (4-1, 3-1 AE) used a sweep of host Binghamton (25-19, 25-14, 25-17) on Sunday morning to go to 3-0 in America East play for the first time since 2009. The Retrievers then stayed tough with defending champion UAlbany (4-1, 3-0) before falling in four sets (25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 25-19).

UMBC used a balanced effort in the first match of the day, with eight different Retrievers recording a kill. Anouk Van Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) led all players with nine kills on .450 hitting and a block. Darina Kumanova (Plovidiv, Bulgaria) picked up seven kills, nine digs, a block and an ace, while classmate Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) had a match-best 23 assists to go with nine digs, two kills and an ace. 

The freshman class shined elsewhere as Michela De Marzi (Milan, Italy) had five kills, two aces and two digs, and Beste Ayhan (Istanbul, Turkey) added two kills and a career-high four blocks. Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added five kills, seven digs and three blocks, while Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.) added two kills in her first action of the year.

In the UAlbany matchm Kumanova paced the offense with 17 kills and 10 digs, while Miller had a match-best 37 assists and eight digs. Libero loren Teter (Redondo Beach, Calif.) had 11 digs, while Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) had a team-high 14 digs. Van Noord had 11 kills, while Ayhan added six and De Marzi and Miller each chipped in four. 

The three teams will all meet again in pod play next Sunday at UMBC.