In her fourth season, Robertson continued to guide the program to new heights. Robertson and her staff were again honored as the America East Coaching Staff of the Year as the team went undefeated in America East Conference play to earn its second consecutive regular season title. The Retrievers would go on to win their second straight tournament championship and NCAA Tournament berth.
The team continued to flourish under Robertson's tutelage, as six different Retrievers earned All-Conference honors. Loren Teter, Mia Bilusic and Grace Rigsbee earned All-Conference First Team honors, while Andjelija Draskovic earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team and Mila Ilieva and Bilusic were named to the All-Rookie Team. Off the court, Aysia Miller and Teter both earned spots on the All-Academic team. Teter became the first Retriever ever to earn AVCA All-Region honors, and was the second player in program history to be named America East Defensive Specialist of the Year. Bilusic earned America East Rookie of the Year and Emily Ferketic took home the league's Elite 18 Award, which symbolizes the top performing student-athlete in the championships. Ferketic is a physics major and maintains a 4.0 grade-point average
In just her third season as coach, Robertson and her staff earned America East Coaching Staff of the Year and she earned AVCA East Coast Region Coach of the Year as she guided the Retrievers to their first America East championship and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1998. With six new players, including five freshmen, and a nearly entirely new starting lineup, UMBC was picked to finish near the bottom of the standings in a pre-season coaches poll. However, the Retrievers shocked everyone by going 9-3 in conference play and earning a share of the America East Regular Season title for the first time. The Retrievers then traveled to face defending champion UAlbany, who swept UMBC in the regular season series, in the America East Championship and stunned the defending champs by rallying for five-set victory.
On the court, UMBC had two First Team All-Conference honorees, including the Rookie of the Year. In addition, freshman defensive specialist Aysia Miller (Mililani, Hawaii) was pressed into action at setter just prior to the season and became the America East Setter of the Year and a second team all-conference selection. In addition, Anouk Van Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Emily Ferketic (Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned spots on the America East All-Academic Team.
In her first two seasons, the UMBC Volleyball program made great strides under Robertson's tutelage. Off the court, the Retrievers earned their first ever American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2018-19 academic year. In December 2019, Taylor Dunn was one of only four America East student athletes to be named a conference Presidential Scholar-Athlete.
The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale or a 4.10 cumulative team GPA on a 5.0 scale.
On the court, UMBC tied for fourth in the conference in 2019. Junior Carmen Freeman (Memphis, Tenn.) led a quartet of Retrievers honored by the America East, as she was named First Team All-Conference and All-Academic the conference. Freshmen Kamani Conteh (New Castle, Del.) and Niki Khoshatefeh (Temecula, Calif.) were named to the All-Rookie Team, while Dunn joined Freeman on the All-Academic Team. It marked the first time since 2013 that UMBC had multiple players named to the All-Academic Team, and it was only the third time ever. Also, it's the first time since 2015 that multiple Retrievers placed onto the All-Rookie Team. The 2019 season was highlighted by a road sweep of New Hampshire on November 1. It was the first time UNH had been swept at home since 10/29/17, and it was only the second loss in eight home matches to that point for the Wildcats. This was just UMBC's fourth sweep of New Hampshire in 35 matches, first sweep of them overall since 11/4/2011 and only the second time the Retrievers have swept the Wildcats on the road (11/12/2006).
In 2018, Paola Rojas (San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico) and Carmen Freeman (Memphis, Tenn.) each earned America East All-Conference honors for the second consecutive season, while Paige Krenik (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) was named the to All-Rookie team the conference announced Thursday night on Long Island.
Rojas earned Tecond Team All-Conference honors after leading the conference in blocks, with 100, 16 more than conference player of the year Jenna Bridges from Hartford, and 15 mre than the second place finisher. The redshirt senior also finished third in total kills in conference (145), fourth in overall kills (266) and third in overall hitting percentage (.298). Rojas would go on to be selected ninth overall (first pick of the second round) by Las Changas de Naranjito in the Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino (Puerto Rico) draft and signed a contract with the team.
Krenik was named to the All-Rookie team after leading the conference in Rookie of the Week awards with four, three more than Rookie of the Year Andersen Vaughan of Albany. Krenik finished third on the team in kills (238) and kills per set (2.56). She also finished fourth on the team in digs (190) and digs per set (2.04). Freeman, the defending America East Co-Rookie of the Year, earned All-Academic team honors thanks to a 3.67 gpa in political science.
Former UMBC Director of Athletics Tim Hall announced the hiring of Cristina Robertson as the new head coach of the Retriever volleyball team. Robertson will be just the sixth coach in the program's 45-year history, and comes to UMBC after spending the last nine seasons as an assistant coach at Duke.
"We are so excited to have Cristina Robertson join the Retriever family," said Hall. "She has a deep concern for the welfare of her student-athletes and a strong, comprehensive level of Volleyball coaching success. We look forward to Cristina building a championship-caliber program."
"I am honored to be the new head volleyball coach at UMBC. While I will always love and cherish my time at Duke, I am beyond excited to embrace this new opportunity. I'd like to thank President Hrabowski, Tim Hall, Dr.Nancy Young and Tom Mandato for giving me this exciting opportunity, " said Robertson.
"UMBC is an institution that prides itself on academic excellence, which is important to me. I look forward to assisting in the development of this new group of young women on and off the volleyball court and positioning our program at the top of the America East Conference."
The native of Romania assisted with team training, recruiting and scouting for the Blue Devil volleyball program. She also helped the Blue Devils to a 197-74 overall record and a 124-54 mark in ACC play. The Blue Devils finished in the top three in the league in all but three seasons since her arrival, capturing the conference crown in 2010 and 2013. Duke advanced to the NCAA Tournament in six of her nine seasons, including 2010 when the Blue Devils enjoyed a run to the NCAA Regional Final before falling to eventual national champion Penn State.
Robertson has also aided in the development of nine All-Americans, 10 All-East Region selections and 13 All-ACC picks, including 2013 ACC Player of the Year Emily Sklar, 2010 ACC Player of the Year Kellie Catanach and three-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year Ali McCurdy. Catanach finished her career ranked second on Duke's all-time list and ninth in ACC history with 5,364 assists, while McCurdy broke Duke's career digs record.
"I am really excited for Cristina and her wonderful opportunity at UMBC," said Duke head coach Jolene Nagel. "She has worked hard during her time at Duke and is more than ready to be a head coach. She is an excellent teacher and will help the team have fun along the journey. She will, without a doubt, be a welcome addition to UMBC!"
Prior to Duke, Robertson served two seasons as an assistant coach at Colgate, helping the Red Raiders to back-to-back winning seasons in 2007 and 2008 and two consecutive runs to the Patriot League Championship match. Robertson assisted in all aspects of the program while at Colgate.
Robertson's coaching career began at Troy where she served as a graduate assistant for two seasons. With Troy, Robertson assisted with the day-to-day operations of the program, coordinating team travel and equipment and working with the summer camps program.
Before beginning her career as a coach, Robertson played three years as a middle blocker at Long Island University and helped the team capture the 2004 Northeast Conference Championship. During the championship run that propelled Long Island to an NCAA Tournament berth, Robertson was named NEC Tournament MVP and to the All-NEC first team. A two-time Long Island team MVP in 2002 and 2003, Robertson finished the 2003 season ranked fourth nationally in kills per set.
In 2012, the LIU Department of Athletics inducted Robertson into its Hall of Fame as she became the first Hall of Fame inductee from the Blackbirds' volleyball program.
Robertson received her Bachelor of Science degree in Adapted Physical Education from Long Island University's Arnold and Marie Schwartz School of Sports Sciences in 2005. She went on to earn her Master of Science degree in Sport and Fitness Management from Troy in 2007.
Robertson (née Pintilie) and her husband Terrence have one son, Cameron.
UMBC finished the 2017 campaign 14-12 overall and tied for fourth in the America East with a 6-6 conference record. The Retrievers will return America East Co-Rookie of the Year Carmen Freeman, as well as First-Team All-Conference middle blocker Paola Rojas and two-time All-Conference and 2016 Defensive Specialist of the Year Kristin Watson.
