UMBC Sports Blog

After beating Binghamton on their court earlier in the season, the Bearcats took revenge and dominated UMBC in the RAC to end their home season with a loss.

Binghamton won all three sets, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20, and didn’t even let UMBC get close in the end.

Alyssa Lang recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs, but no other Retriever recorded over five kills in the match. Three of them, Ashley Oscars, Iman Kennedy, and Ali Loynachan did record five, but had a combined 10 errors on the day.

After the first set (25-18), came back to tie the game up by taking the second set (25-22) and they they played well in the next two sets it was Albany’s match as they took the final two sets (25-20, 25-21) to sweep UMBC this season.

Alyssa Lang led UMBC with 14 kills and added 11 digs while Naomi Bush had 13 kills. Ashley Oscars came one kill away from a double-double with nine kills and 11 digs. Kira Giles had a double-double with 23 assists and 14 digs while Allie Spaay had 24 assists and Pam Jarrett had 23 digs. Iman Kenned had seven kills with three blocks while Ali Loynachan had eight kills. The other two points came from Sarah Joy, who also led the team with four blocks.

With the team now at 5-3 in the conference they are tied with Stony Brook for second place as they split the series with them. they have just two regular season games left including a tough home game tomorrow against Binghamton and then on the road against New Hampshire next week to conclude the regular season.

For the fourth time in the 2009 volleyball season, freshman hitter Naomi Bush has been named the America East Rookie of the Week.

In a 3-0 sweep of Hartford Bush had nine kills with no errors in 14 attempts for a .643 hitting percentage. In the match she also had two blocks and one assists.

Freshman hitter Naomi Bush looks to be following in the footsteps of the great freshman in the years at UMBC before her as she is having a great season. Today against Hartford she his .643 with nine kills and no errors in a three set sweep, 25-20, 25-11, 25-16.

Alyssa Lang was second on the team with seven kills and Ashley Oscars has six, which is what is to be expected from those two night in and night out anymore, but Iman Kennedy stepped up for another big game with five kills while hitting .400.

Allie Spaay has come on strong lately and recorded 21 assists with six digs while Kira Giles had nine kills and five digs.

Sarah Joy had a tremendous game with five blocks.

About one year ago Volleyball’s Sabrina Hoeks suffered a left ACL tear and was forced to miss the end of the season, yesterday she suffered the same fate in practice but this time it was her right ACL. It is a very unfortunate situation for her because she worked so hard to get back, and she came back strong, but it happened again. I don’t know if it is good or bad that is was the other ACL because assumably if it was her left one again her career would be over, but because it is her right her could still play, but now she has two bad knees. It’s a tough situation but she’s been through this before and knows how to come back strong.

After dropping Stony Brook a few days ago 3-0, the Seawolves returned the favor and swept the Retriever in the second match of the home-and-home, this time pleasing their fans.

The Retrievers kept the match very close and even pushed the second set into extra points (25-20, 26-24, 25-21), but they couldn’t get over the hump in any set.

Ashley Oscars lead the team with 12 kills and 11 digs for the double double, while Alyssa Lang came one kill away from a doble as she also had 10 digs.

Allie Spaay and Kira Giles split the assists, 16-16.

The Retrievers now have three straight home games before concluding the season on the road and are still in position to win the conference and get home court advantage.

Iman Kennedy hit a team high .800 with four kills.

It took just three sets for the volleyball team to get past the Seawolves. Stony Brook kept the sets close but UMBC got the sweep: 25-22, 25-20, 25-19.

Alyssa Lang led the team with five kills and was tied to second on the team with three digs.

Iman Kennedy was second on the team with four kills and led hitting .800.

Naomi Bush was second on the team hitting .600 with three kills.

Allie Spaay recorded seven assists and four digs while kira Giles had eight assists.

Next up for the 12-8 (4-1 AEC) Retrievers is Stony Brook again in New York for the second part of the home-and-home series.

The volleyball teams streak of success was once again shut down by Albany, who UMBC has not been able to get past in recent years.

One good thing though was Ali Loynachan made her comeback and she was second on the eam with five kills.

Senior outside hitter Ashley Oscars lead UMBC with six kills and 13 digs.

Kira Giles recorded a double-double with 12 assists and 10 digs while Pam Jarrett added 12 digs.

But the Retrievers could not get anything going as they lost all three sets in the game (25-12, 25-19, 25-11).

The volleyball team has not had a lot of luck against Binghamton in years past but this time UMBC got the best of them. Alyssa Lang lead all hitters with 20 while Ashley Oscars had a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs. Naomi Bush also had 13 kills. Allie Spaay had a double-double with 35 assists and 10 kills. Kira Giles also had a double-double with 23 assists and 14 digs. Pam Jarrett has 22 digs as well.

UMBC is not 11-7 and 3-0 in America East play.

It’s official- the Volleyball team is on fire. Without question the Volleyball team is playing great right now. After starting the season 2-6 and playing sloppy, the team has won eight of nine matches to improve to 10-7 and 2-0 in the America East.

A big reason for the success of the team lately has been Alyssa Lang. She had another phenomenal game with 21 kills and 15 digs in the match for her third straight double-double, and fifth of the season.

Alyssa Lang has been been spectacular for the Retrievers for the past three matches.

Ashley Oscars has also been brilliant since coming back. She recorded 15 kills with 13 digs for her second straight double-double.

But making it a trio of great performances was Sabrina Hoeks. She recorded 10 kills with just 1 errors with a .692 hitting percentage. She had two service aces and two assisted blocks.

Sabrina Hoeks lead the team with a .692 hitting percentage.

Both setters, Allie Spaay and Kira Giles, recorded double-doubles as well. Spaay led the team with 35 assists with 17 digs and Giles recorded 15 assists with 14 digs.

Senior Pam Jarrett recorded a team high 18 kills and Sophomore Iman Kennedy recorded eight kills with a team high five blocks.