Durham, N.H. -- The visiting UMBC Volleyball team swept its way to a tenth straight win (25-19. 25-22, 25-21) over New Hampshire to clinch its second-straight America East regular season title, and fifth in seven seasons overall.
With the win, UMBC (14-5, 8-0 AE) clinches the top seed hosting rights in the America East Tournament in two weeks. The semifinals will be on Thursday November 19th at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., with the Retrievers facing the No.4 seed in the afternoon contest. The Championship match will be played at 5 p.m. on November 21.
Freshman phenom
Natalie Harris had a match-high 15 kills on .286 hitting, nine digs and four blocks, and
Hannah Dobbs added 13 kills, two aces and two digs.
Claudia Llamas tallied nine kills, while
Isabel Ostvig filled up the stat sheet with 35 assists, six blocks, four digs and three kills (.400 hitting).Â
Hannah Howard continued her impressive senior campaign by anchoring the defense that held the hosts to just .146 hitting while not being aced. She also added 11 digs, four assists and three aces of her own.
Jalynn Brown picked up five kills and five blocks, and fellow middle
Grace Larrivee had a game-high eight blocks and two kills.
Ella McAllister came off the bench to pick up eight digs in the contest.
The Retrievers return to action with a pair of matches next weekend. First, they travel to NJIT for a Friday match at 5 p.m., before returning to The Peake to close the regular season against Binghamton on Sunday at 1 p.m.
