A season filled with ups and downs has led to this: the Binghamton University women’s volleyball team will play in the America East tournament.
The Bearcats (13-15, 5-5 AE) finished the year in a four-way tie for second place. The University of New Hampshire entered the weekend 3-5 in conference but beat both Stony Brook University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County — who were 5-4 going into their matches — to put each of the teams at 5-5. With each of the four teams going 1-1 against the other three, the tiebreaker got complicated, but in the end UNH finished with the second seed, Binghamton the third seed and UMBC the fourth seed, leaving Stony Brook the odd man out.
The end result of the fray is that the Bearcats will play the University of New Hampshire (13-14, 5-5 AE) in the first round. The winner will then play the team that comes out of the matchup between No. 1 seed Albany (20-8, 10-0 AE) and No. 4 seed UMBC (13-12, 5-5 AE). Albany, as the top seed, will host the tournament. New Hampshire, after starting out 0-4 in AE play, won five of its last six conference matches to make it into the tournament. The Wildcats lost to the Bearcats the first time the two teams met, but won their most recent faceoff.
“Being in the tournament is something that we’ve been working for all year and we’re happy to make it and be able to play New Hampshire again,” said Binghamton head coach Glenn Kiriyama. “It gives us a chance to play against a really good team and to see if we can make some adjustments and work on a few things and come out ahead of them this time.”
The wins by UNH meant that Binghamton’s match at home on Friday against the University of Hartford (7-21, 0-10 AE) amounted to a must-win. Coming off of a win against UMBC and a close loss to Syracuse University, the Bearcats entered their match with the Hawks looking to put themselves in the best possible position to make the tournament, but also made what appeared to be a guaranteed win into a very serious battle.
Binghamton jumped ahead quickly against the Hawks. On the service game of junior Anna Lejina the Bearcats built a 4-3 lead into an 8-3 lead. With a 14-10 lead, BU went on another 4-0 run to lead 18-10, and was poised to take the set while leading 23-15. The Hawks went on a furious rally, taking seven of the next eight points to pull within two, but Binghamton got the final point it needed to put the set away at 25-22.
The second set started out much closer than the first, though it finished with a much larger margin of victory. The Bearcats were up 12-9 midway through the set before pulling ahead with a 13-5 run to take it 25-14. While the teams put up similar numbers in kills, BU committed seven fewer errors to help lead them to the win.
In the third set the Bearcats found themselves trailing for the first time since falling behind 1-0 in the first set. Down 8-10, Binghamton scored the next two to tie it. The teams went back and forth for most of the set, and the score went to 16-15 in favor of the home team. The Bearcats took control from there, pulling ahead 19-15 and eventually winning the set 25-19 to take the match. BU had 16 kills and just three errors in the set, good for a .382 hitting percentage.
Junior Michelle McDonough led the team with 14 kills, three blocks and a .522 hitting percentage, followed by Lejina’s 12 kills. Senior libero Brianna Strong had 15 digs to lead all players, and Lindsey Mueller had 37 assists, eight digs and a block. Mueller was awarded America East Setter of the Week on Monday. She had an additional 31 assists, two blocks and five digs against Syracuse earlier in the week.
“When they play aggressive they play a lot better,” said Kiriyama. “When our middles play aggressive, more so than the outsides, then that really helps the offense and makes the team click a little bit better, and I thought Lindsey did a good job of getting that going.”
The match was also the final home game for seniors Dawn Lammert, Brianna Strong and Julia Vint, who were honored before the game. Lammert, a middle blocker, is third in the conference and first on the team in blocks. She is currently third in team history in total blocks. Strong took over the libero position from Jaclyn Strader after she graduated at the end of last year, and is third in the conference in digs per set. Vint, mainly a role player in her time here, put up 64 digs on the season.
“All three of them will be missed, that’s for sure,” said Kiriyama of his three seniors. “Bri’s done a good job of stepping in as libero this year, and she’s taken that to a good level and we’re pleased with what she’s done with that. Dawn, obviously she’s been a starter for the last three years or so, and she’s come a long way. She’s done a good job up there just controlling the net and getting some key blocks when we need them. Julia’s done a really good job, actually, this year. She’s played a lot more this year than she ever has and she’s come a long ways also with her passing and defense.”
The Bearcats are scheduled to take on UNH on Friday at 3 p.m. at host school Albany. Should the team win, it would then face off in the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m.