For the Binghamton University women’s volleyball team, it was an up-and-down year that included a No. 1 pick in the preseason poll, a 1-5 stretch in conference play, multiple heartbreaking five-set losses and a playoff spot earned via a tiebreaker. When it mattered most, though, the talent of the Bearcats shone through. The team upset No. 2 seed University of New Hampshire and No. 1 seed University at Albany to win the America East tournament and clinch a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s hard to describe,” said Binghamton head coach Glenn Kiriyama. “I’m very elated and just excited to make the tournament … They had a great focus coming into the weekend. They just played hard, worked hard and played as a team this weekend.”
Binghamton (15-15, 5-5 AE) will face Penn State University (32-0) in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Nittany Lions are two-time defending national champions and the top-ranked team in the nation. The team is also riding a 96-match win streak spanning more than two years. The Nittany Lions have lost just five sets all year, while last season’s championship team lost just two sets all year. It is Binghamton’s first conference championship since the 2005 season, when the Bearcats also faced Penn State in the NCAA tournament. BU lost that match in three sets.
Entering the America East tournament, the Bearcats had lost seven of nine overall before beating winless University of Hartford to finish off the regular season. BU, having tied with four other teams, was given the No. 3 seed in the tournament after the tiebreaker, which pit them against second-seeded University of New Hampshire (13-15, 5-5 AE). The Wildcats were winners of five of six to end the year, including a sweep of the Bearcats in the West Gym.
Things were close from the start, with UNH taking an 18-14 lead in the first set. The Bearcats sprang into life, though, going on an 11-3 run to take the set 25-21. After a 25-17 second set win in which BU hit .355, Binghamton edged out to an 18-17 lead in the third set. At this point, they reeled off a 7-3 run to pull off the upset. No Bearcat put up more than seven kills, but five different players put up six.
“It was nice coming in as sort of underdogs,” Kiriyama said. “They got the ball rolling quick against New Hampshire and continued it throughout the weekend. It was inspiring to watch, they just played some fired-up volleyball throughout. They were aggressive, they did well in pretty much every aspect of the game.”
For senior Brianna Strong, who is the only current member of the team who has played in the NCAA tournament, the New Hampshire game was a turning point for the team.
“We played well against New Hampshire, we dominated in practice the next day and then killed it at Albany,” she said. “And I knew, as soon as our first game came out, it was our day, I could tell we were on in warm-ups, everything.”
Even with the win, the Bearcats still had a big challenge ahead of them: to win the America East tournament, they would have to beat the three-time defending conference champions in the University at Albany (22-9, 10-0 AE). The Great Danes were the host team, undefeated in conference this year and hadn’t lost to the Bearcats since September of 2006. This season, after pushing Albany to five sets on the road, the Bearcats were swept at home by the Great Danes.
Despite the odds being against them, Binghamton came into the match confident, due to both their five-set match earlier in the year and the victory against UNH. That confidence was apparent from the very outset, as the Bearcats jumped out with a 25-19 win in the first set. BU hit .424 in the set, knocking down 17 kills to just 10 for Albany.
The second set was more of a challenge, and Albany looked poised to tie the match with a 24-22 lead. Facing set point, though, the Bearcats did what they had struggled to do and rallied back against Albany at a crucial point. Albany committed a pair of errors to tie it, and the teams traded the next two points to tie it at 25. When it mattered most, junior outside hitters Michelle McDonough and Anna Lejina — who finished tied for second in kills in the conference and had led the Bearcat offense all year — came through with a kill each to take the pivotal set.
The Bearcats found themselves a set away from taking the America East tournament and upsetting the No. 1 seed. However, Albany showed why it was able to win the conference the last three years. The Great Danes committed just a single error in the third set en route to a 25-12 win. With Albany’s dominance over the Bearcats in recent years, it was do-or-die time for BU. So when it counted, the Bearcats played like champions. Tied at 18 in the fourth set, Binghamton scored the next three and pulled out a 25-19 win to claim the conference championship.
“We worked hard all season; this was our goal from the beginning,” said McDonough. “We definitely had a rough ride getting there, we had some highs and some lows during the season, but we worked for that game against Albany last week and it was exciting and great for us … That weekend we knew it was do or die. We were either going to … keep fighting and playing, or go home and that was it. We just left it all on the court, played together as a team, had fun and gave it all that we could and it resulted in [more than] anything we could ask for.”
The Bearcats recorded 11 blocks as a team, including six from freshman Alex Roland. Lejina had a match-high 22 kills, followed by McDonough’s 21. Junior setter Lindsey Mueller had 45 assists, 10 digs and three blocks, and was named Most Outstanding Player for the tournament. Conference Setter and Player of the Year Brooke Stanley had 41 assists and 12 digs for the Great Danes, while Teresa Coppiellie had 15 digs and a team-high 14 kills.
For every player on the team other than Strong, this is their first NCAA tournament appearance. This opportunity is one that all are happy to have.
“They’re even more excited than I am,” Kiriyama said. “They’re a good group and they’re looking forward to the opportunity to go to the tournament and they’re just very appreciative of having played so well and having won the conference tournament.”
“It feels great,” said Mueller. “I mean we’ve been working for this, obviously, for a very long time. I mean, last season we didn’t do as well as expected and now this year we finally pulled it off and are going to the NCAAs so that’s really exciting.”
The team is scheduled to play at Penn State in the first round of the NCAA tournament at 7:30 p.m this Friday.