The UMBC volleyball team will close out its regular season home slate on Sunday when it hosts New Hampshire at 1 p.m. The Retrievers will honor seniors Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.), Emily Ferketic (Pittsburrgh, Pa.) and Kayla Tomas (Silver Spring, Md.) prior to the match. Fans are asked to be in their seats by 12:55 p.m. for the ceremony.
UMBC shook off a tough loss to Binghamton on Sunday and defeated a strong Howard Bison squad in four sets at Burr Gymnasium on Wednesday evening. The Retrievers triumphed, 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21 and improved to 14-6 overall.
· Junior Mia Bilusic recorded a season-high 26 kills and made just two errors to lead an outstanding effort.
· The Retrievers have won five straight road matches. They have won nine of their last 10 and 13 of their 16 matches overall.
· The Retrievers are ranked 79th in of 344 NCAA Division I volleyball programs in the RPI ratings (matches played as of Oct. 30).
· 2022 America East honorees
o Mia Bilusic, So, Player of the Week, Sept. 13, Oct. 4
o Kamani Conteh, Sr., Player of the Week, Sept. 20
o Serin Maden, Fr., Setter of the Week, Aug. 30, Sept. 7, Sept. 13
o Aysia Miller, Jr., Defensive Specialist of the Week, Sept. 7, Sept. 27
· UMBC currently leads America East in assists (12.33), kills (13.20) and service aces (1.93) per set.
· Bilusic (4.24) and Conteh (4.18) are 1-2 in the league in kills per set. Bilusic is also tops in service aces (0.53), while Maden is far and away the leader in assists at 10.45 assists per set through 77 sets in 2022. Miller is second in the AE in digs per set (4.15) – the libero is playing her third different position (setter, outside hitter, libero) in three seasons on Hilltop Circle.
· Through matches of Nov. 1, Bilusic was 13th in the nation in service aces per set, while Maden was 37th in assists per set.
· The Retrievers are seventh nationally with 1.97 aces per set and assists per set.
SCOUTING NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire enters the contest at 15-9 and 3-4 in the America East. They most recently came away with a four set victory over Bryant, and are sitting in fourth place in the standings. Kara Oxenknecht leads the Wildcats with 174 kills and Wren Macaulay leads in assists at 319. Mia Pagliarini and Avery LePore each have 208 digs to lead the team. The last time these two teams met the Retrievers won a five set thriller in the Granite State on October 23. UNH leads the all-time series, 25-15, but UMBC has won five of the last six, and three in a row. The teams last met in Baltimore on 10/10/21, as UMBC pulled off a sweep.
