LOWELL, Mass. - Freshman hitter Lauren Kornmann continued her hot hand with 12 kills and Binghamton volleyball (11-11, 5-3 America East) rolled to a 3-0 sweep over host UMass Lowell (6-16, 1-7 AE) Friday night at the Costello Athletic Center. The 26-24, 25-15, 25-14 win, BU's third in a row, kicked off a two-match weekend road trip that concludes Sunday at Hartford.

Kornmann, the reigning America East Player of the Week, hit .296 for the match and was aided up front by sophomore hitter Gaby Alicea, who totalled nine kills, three blocks and two aces. Each player accounted for 12.5 points. Sophomore hitter Erin Shultz produced eight kills and eight digs, junior setter Sarah Ngo handed out 34 assists and nine digs and senior libero Bailey Walker sprawled out for 18 digs with a pair of aces.

The Bearcats dug themselves an early hole in Set 1, trailing 11-6 early and 20-15 before rallying. Led by Kornmann and some untimely attack errors by the host River Hawks, BU won 11 of the final 15 points to escape 26-24. A Kornmann kill evened the score at 21-21 and after a Lowell hitting error, senior middle hitter Bianca Anderson finished off a feed from Ngo for a 23-21 edge. Lowell offset another Kornmann kill with a kill and ace, knotting the opener at 24-24. But Alicea put one away and a wide crosscourt attack by the River Hawks gave BU the narrow win.

In Set 2, BU jumped out to a 12-5 lead as Shultz put down two early kills and junior hitter Kristella Morina added two more as the Bearcats stretched their lead. The River Hawks crept to within 15-10 before a 6-1 Binghamton run opened up a commanding 21-11 lead. Alicea had another kill during the decisive stretch and Morina ended it with her fourth kill of the set. The Bearcats hit .333 in the set and Lowell hurt itself with eight attack errors and four service errors.

In the third and final set, Alicea went to work and BU used a 5-0 run to open up a 9-4 edge. She produced kills for four of Binghamton's first 10 points. By the time Kornmann hit double digits with her 10th kill, BU was up 15-9 and in control. Kornmann had two kills late in the set before Anderson ended the match with a putaway in the middle. 

Binghamton has now won nine of its last 10 games, including back-to-back sweeps of league-leading Albany and now UMass Lowell. The win, coupled with a Stony Brook loss, allows BU to open up a three-game cushion (with four to play) for the fourth and final playoff spot and also keeps the Bearcats just a half-game out of second place in the standings. Bearcats will now look to extend their season-long win streak to four when they face Hartford at 1 p.m. on Sunday in West Hartford.