Harrisonburg, Va. -- The UMBC Volleyball team concluded it's difficult first weekend by pushing host James Madison (2-1) in a four set defeat (25-21, 18-25, 25-22, 25-20)

Freshman Hannah Howard continued her strong play finishing with 22 digs, while Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.) and Mia Bilusic (Zagreb, Croatia) paced the offense with 18 and 17 kills, respectively. Bilsuic hit .342 and also added 10 digs. 

Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) continued her strong all around play, totaling 29 assists, 10 digs, eight kills and two blocks. The senior was named to the All-Tournament Team after she averaged a near triple-double over the three games (7.4 kills, 11.4 digs and 25.3 assists per match) and had a double-double in every match, including an impressive 30 assists and 15 digs in four sets against HPU.

Michela De Marzi (Milan, Italy) had four kills on seven attacks with no errors and a pair of blocks.


How it happened:
 

• JMU jumped out to a big lead in the first set, the Retrievers made a furious comeback and cut the deficit to one on multiple occasions, but could never tie it up and dropped the set.
• The set was back-and-forth until a big run midway through gave UMBC a 19-12 lead and they kept the Dukes at bay the rest of the way
• This time it was UMBC who jumped out to an early five point lead, JMU eventually tied it up and the teams traded the lead multiple times before the hosts closed the set on a 3-0 run
• The fourth set saw JMU pull away early, UMBC made a few runs, but could never get closer than two points down

The Retrievers head to Connecticut next weekend for a pair of road matches against Fairfield (2022: 25-7, 17-1 MAAC) and Sacred Heart (2022: 21-10, 12-2 NEC)