VESTAL, N.Y. – The Binghamton volleyball team (9-7, 1-3 America East) picked up its first America East Conference victory of the season Sunday when the Bearcats defeated UAlbany (5-11, 1-3 America East) at the West Gym. Binghamton prevailed 20-25, 25-17, 25-23, 23-25 and 15-7.
"It's great," said Binghamton Head Volleyball Coach
Allie Yaeger. "Everybody contributed. When you take a look at our stats, everybody up and down the line contributed."
Helping lead the way for the Bearcats was
Briana Binagi, who put up a career-high 20 kills while adding nine digs, one assist and one service ace to help the Bearcats snap their three-match losing streak.
"We had really great energy in that match," said Binagi. "We came out with a lot more confidence in that game. I think that was a really big part of our win today. Just believing in each other and just trusting in our teammates. There was a lot of contributions from everyone."
In her first match since reaching 1,000 assists for her career last Friday,
Regan Kadel led Binghamton with a season-high 49 assists on Sunday. With her career total now at 1,060, she passed Julie Chambers' 1,013 for the eighth-most career assists in Binghamton volleyball history. Kadel now trails Kiara Adams, who sits seventh with 1,947. Kadel also had 15 digs Sunday for her third double-double of the season, and second in her last three matches.
Both
Maya Coblentz-Brown and
Viktoria Dimitrova added 15 kills each, with Dimitrova also recording five total blocks.
Francesca Pierdonati and
Hannah Olmstead led all players with six total blocks each, and
Celeste Ocampo recorded 26 digs.
UAlbany jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set, before Binghamton got within one point at 8-7. But the Great Danes then scored seven of the next nine points to extend their lead to 15-9, before eventually pulling away to a 25-20 win in the opening frame.
After UAlbany took a 5-3 lead early in the second set, Binghamton responded by going on an 11-2 run to surge ahead to a 14-7 advantage. The Bearcats stayed ahead by at least four points for the remainder of the set before ultimately winning it to tie the match at 1-1.
The Great Danes scored the first four points in the third set, eventually holding a 10-4 lead. The Bearcats slowly chipped away at the deficit. Down 18-16, Pierdonati contributed to three-straight blocks to put Binghamton ahead 19-18. Both teams traded the lead multiple times, before Binghamton scored four of the final five points to take the set and move ahead in the match 2-1.
In the fourth set, it was the Bearcats who got out to the early lead, with Binghamton jumping ahead 4-1. But the frame would be highly contested, seeing 14 tie scores and four lead changes. Both teams eventually found themselves in a 22-22 tie, before UAlbany scored three of the final four points to tie the match 2-2.
The back-and-forth battle between the two Upstate New York programs carried over into the final set, with both teams racing out to a 5-5 tie. Binghamton then took advantage of four straight errors by UAlbany to ultimately go on a 7-1 run to grab a 12-6 lead. After UAlbany picked up a point, Binghamton closed out the match with three straight kills, two of which came from Binagi.
Binghamton heads back out on the road to face NJIT in Newark, N.J., Friday at 6 p.m.
Hinman, Howard & Katell, LLP is the presenting sponsor of Bearcats Volleyball.
