The Binghamton University women’s volleyball team’s first weekend at home meant a return to the cheers of supporters, the presence of family and friends and the jeers of those heckling the opposing team. Not coincidentally, it also meant a return to the team’s winning ways.
Coming off of three losses last week, the Bearcats (5-4, 0-0 America East) hosted the 2009 Binghamton Invite hoping to turn things around in their first matches at home this year. BU did just that, dropping just one of the 10 sets they played over the weekend en route to a tournament championship.
“It’s always good, I think it helps your confidence,” said Binghamton head coach Glenn Kiriyama regarding the tournament victory. “I think it will help them in the long run, when we get into conference. The wins are important. One of the goals this year is to win tournaments, especially to win our home tournament.”
The tournament opened Friday night in the West Gym against Towson University (7-4). Binghamton got off to a hot start, winning the first set, 25-15. The Bearcats hit at .346, to Towson’s .074, and had 13 kills. The second set was much more competitive, as the teams posted nearly identical numbers in kills, errors and hit percentage.
The end result was the same, though, as the Bearcats took it 25-22. The final set was another convincing win, 25-16. Junior co-captain Michelle McDonough led all players with 18 kills, followed closely by fellow junior Anna Lejina with 16.
Their second match pitted BU and Fairleigh Dickinson University (3-9). The first set proved to be a continuation of the trend from the first match, as Binghamton won by a 25-13 score. The Bearcats didn’t trail in the set after rallying from a 2-0 hole early on, as the Knights won just one point on their serve in the set. The second set wouldn’t prove to be so easy. The teams traded leads, with no team winning by more than three points at any time. Binghamton was able to grab a 24-21 advantage and held on to win 25-23.
The third set was a less successful one for the home team. After keeping it tight and leading 12-10, the Knights went on an 11-2 run to go up 23-12. BU mounted a rally, scoring nine of the next 10 to cut the lead to 24-21, but errors and miscommunications on the court would prove too much to overcome as they fell 25-21. The final set was a return to dominant play by the Bearcats. BU built up a 10-6 lead, helped in part by a play in which junior setter Lindsey Mueller faked the set and knocked the ball over the net, where it fell in untouched. From this point Binghamton went on a 13-4 run to break away, eventually leading to a 25-15 victory.
The team had one of its best statistical performances of the year. The team posted season-highs with a .385 attack percentage and eight blocks. Mueller had 49 assists, her second-best performance on the year. Lejina had 15 kills and hit .480, besting her own season-high .462 percentage from the game against Towson. Senior co-captain Dawn Lammert tied her season high with five block assists.
Once again, though, it was McDonough who was the team leader, both with her double-double of 19 kills and 10 digs and her vocal leadership on the court. Kiriyama has noticed the way she’s stepped up to her role as team co-captain.
“I think she’s taken it upon herself to lead by example and also encourage the rest of her teammates,” he said.
The final match of the tournament pitted the Bearcats against Cornell University (2-4), also winners of its first two matches in the Invite, for the right to be called tournament champion. Binghamton opened up with a 25-19 win in the first set and a 25-17 win in the second, holding the Big Red to .097 and .036 attack percentages in the two sets, respectively.
The third set was the greatest challenge for BU. Cornell jumped out immediately, taking a quick 6-0 lead with the help of several errors by the Bearcats. Binghamton hit right back, going on an 8-0 run of their own, capped off by an ace by Anna Lejina. Cornell would score the next point, and from that point on, no team would lead by more than a single point until Cornell took a 21-19 lead. Up 23-21, the Big Red found themselves winning by two points and two points away from winning the set. They hit their next serve out of bounds, though, and sparked a 4-0 rally by the Bearcats to end the set 25-23.
Lejina had the match high with 12 kills, and Mueller led with 42 assists and three block assists. Michelle McDonough was named tournament MVP. On the whole, Kiriyama was pleased with his team’s performance, especially on the front line.
“We’re still working on getting more production from more people,” he said. “But it was nice to see it sort of play out, and we were able to get contributions from a lot of different people this weekend.”
The matches were also an opportunity for fans to see freshman Alex Roland play. The middle blocker played all 10 sets, posting 10 kills and six blocks.
“She’s come a long way in the short time that she’s been here, and we’ve seen a lot of improvement, especially this weekend,” Kiriyama said of Roland. “She did a pretty good job up there, holding her own against the other teams.”
The Bearcats’ next matches come this weekend in the West Point Challenge, hosted by Army. BU opens up against the University of Iowa (6-3) on Friday at 2 p.m. and follows with Morgan State University (2-4) at 4 p.m. The Bearcats finish up on Saturday at noon against host Army (8-3), who defeated No. 19 Pepperdine University last Saturday.