VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton volleyball rolled out a completely new lineup to open its 2025 season and the Bearcats pushed Atlantic 10 member Fordham to a fifth set before falling 3-2 Friday night at the Events Center. Fordham won 25-14, 23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-10. The match was the second of the day to start the Bearcat Classic. UConn blanked Lehigh 3-0 in the day's first match.
Sophomore hitter
Briana Binagi was one of four Bearcats with double-doubles after amassing 19 kills, 12 digs and a team-best 22 points. Senior hitter
Merima Smajlovic chipped in 16 kills and a match-high 28 digs. Graduate setter
Alexandra Koleva had 32 assists and 15 digs and sophomore setter
Regan Kadel added 25 assist and 10 digs. Freshman middle
Hannah Olmstead contributed eight kills with a team-best .500 attack percentage.
The Bearcats were slow out of the gate, fell behind 9-1 and couldn't recover in the opening set. But Binghamton staged a late-set rally in the second to pull it out 25-23. Down 23-19, the Bearcats scored the final five points of the set, including kills from Binagi and Olmstead. Fordham hit .406 and snapped a 22-22 tie with the final three points to claim the third set. But the Bearcats rallied again in the fourth, led by six kills apiece from Binagi and Smajlovic. It was tied at 18-all, 24-all and 25-all before kills from Smajlovic and then Binagi closed out the set. Binghamton hit .364 in the frame, thanks to 19 kills and just three erorrs. But in the deciding set, Fordham broke away from an 8-8 tie and hit .364 to finish the match.
"Our goal this season is to learn from every single match," head coach
Allie Yaeger said. "We're just so new playing together. So a five setter is so fun to learn from. Our service ... even our defense ... was great tonight. We are keeping the ball alive and creating opportunities for our hitters. We just can't have 31 hitting errors. Fordham played us really tough ... it's always tough with the first match of the year because you have nothing to scout off. So making those in-game adjustments are what kept us alive and we were able to rally in the fourth and early on in the fifth. But we just we couldn't keep up with them in the end."
The Bearcats face UConn (1 p.m.) and Lehigh (7 p.m.) to highlight Saturday's four matches.
