Vestal, N.Y. -- The UMBC Volleyball team rebounded from a slow start to rally past host Binghamton in a five-set thriller (15-25, 26-24, 14-25, 25-22, 15-12) on Friday night.
Mia Bilusic (Zagreb, Croatia) finished with a match-best 23 kills, to go with nine digs and two blocks.
Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) had a game-high 19 digs, while
Serin Maden (Ankara, Turkey) had 51 assists to lead all players.
Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.) had 15 kills, while
Mila Ilieva (Vidin, Bulgaria) had 10 kills (.364 hitting) and five blocks.
Weronika Wrzesinska (Frednowy, Poland) added a season-best 16 digs, while
Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) returned from an injury to add six digs in her first action of the season.
After a dominating first set, Binghamton (10-5, 1-1 AE) looked poised to go up 2-0 after it fought back from a late second set deficit and held set point at 24-23. Bilusic and Conteh, however, would get back-to-back kills followed by a Bearcat error to give the Retrievers the set, 26-24.
Binghamton would go up 2-1 after hitting a blistering .600 in the third set while committing no errors. UMBC (9-5, 2-0 AE) would cool down the hosts the rest of the way, holding them to .205 hitting in the fourth and .208 in the fifth.
The Retrievers jumped out to a 21-14 lead in the fourth, before holding off a furious BU rally and taking the set, 25-22 after a kill from Conteh.
The fifth set was back-and-forth until a UMBC run put the Retrievers up 10-6. Binghamton responded, however, and would knot the set up at 12, but Conteh would get back-to-back kills before an error gave UMBC the set and the match.
The Retrievers have a pair of matches next weekend, first the travel to NJIT for a Friday night matchup, before returning home for Alumni Day and a Celebration of Title IX game against UAlbany on Sunday.