Dane Pound

CBS Sportsline has released their conference previews. While it's short on info they pick Albany to finish fifth-the highest I've seen them picked.CBS America East Preview BTW it was free America East Conference preview By Tony Mejia SportsLine.com Staff Writer Tell Tony your opinion! What Vermont forward Taylor Coppenrath accomplished in last year's league tournament final was the stuff of legend. Vermont will rely Taylor Coppenrath to lead the offense this season.(AP) He'd missed seven games with a broken bone in his left wrist but wanted to be out there for the championship game, figuring anything he could do to help the team reach it's main objective was worth putting himself out there. Good call. Coppenrath outscored Maine 28-23 by himself in the first half, looking like a floppy-haired Larry Bird-clone as he rained jumpers and flew in for tip-ins against the shocked Black Bears. The performance was a treat for both a national television audience and the standing-room-only crowd that piled into Patrick Gym for the Catamounts' coronation. He ended up with a conference tournament-record 43 points on 14-for-19 shooting from the field and 14-of-15 from the line, incredible statistics given that he should've been rusty and felt some form of pain while he was firing up shots. Stock Chart Team Stock 1. Vermont 2. Maine 3. Boston U. 4. Northeastern 5. Albany 6. Hartford 7. New Hampshire 8. Binghamton 9. Maryland-Baltimore County 10. Stony Brook A pro prospect, Coppenrath returns for his senior year, making Vermont the heavy favorite to win the league and reach its third consecutive NCAA Tournament. Vermont Top three: PF Taylor Coppenrath, PG T.J. Sorrentine, SF Germain Njila. On the rise: The Catamounts come off the best season in their 104-year history, but this year should be even better if they stay healthy. Coppenrath is the AEC's top performer, and Sorrentine makes sure everyone remains focused on their tasks. Depth is fairly strong and the majority of the team's key contributors are seniors who have grown accustomed to winning. Maine Top three: G/F Kevin Reed, C Mark Flavin, PF Joe Campbell. On the rise: Long-time boss John Giannini took the LaSalle job but left the roster well-stocked for assistant Ted Woodward. Four starters are back, and UNLV transfer Ernest Turner should help ease the loss of all-league guard Eric Hobson. The Black Bears defend and hit the boards as well anybody, making them a tough assignment every night out. Boston U. Top three: SG Chaz Carr, PF Rashad Bell, G/F Shawn Wynn. On the decline: A 17-1 league mark didn't help the Terriers avoid a collapse in the conference tournament, but the school was rewarded with an NIT berth. They'll be in contention again, especially if Notre Dame transfer Omari Peterkin hits the ground running when he gains second-semester eligibility. Northeastern Top three: PG Jose Juan Barea, SG Marcus Barnes, PF Bennet Davis. On the decline: The Huskies broke through with 19 victories last season and will again be competitive because of guards Barea and Barnes, who combined for over 37 points in their first year as a tandem. The graduation of Northeastern's top frontcourt players will require the them to do be even more productive and also forces Davis, a promising sophomore, into the go-to role inside. Albany Top three: PG Jamar Wilson, G Jon Iati, PF Levi Levine. On the rise: All five starters return from last season's last-place finishers, but the key returner is Wilson, who averaged 19 a game in 2002-03 but missed last season with a knee injury. Coupled with the arrival of a pair of transfers, the Great Danes will be deep and have the ability to mix things up. Hartford Top three: SG Aaron Cook, PG Charles Ford, SF Bo Taylor. On the rise: The Hawks played their best basketball at the end of last season, which bodes well considering they return four starters and have added a couple of JC transfers to upgrade the frontcourt. Cook will be key; he could potentially average 20 per game. New Hampshire Top three: F Ben Sturgill, F/C Blagoj Janev, F Craig Walls. On the rise: In the three names above, the Wildcats have perhaps the best rebounding front line in the conference. Sturgill's history of foot injuries is a concern, as is the lack of a dependable perimeter scorer. Australian freshman Phil Collins may be the answer. Binghamton Top three: C Nick Billings, PG Troy Hailey, PF Sebastian Herbanier. On the rise: The Bearcats were among the league's biggest surprises a year ago, finishing 10-8 in league play. It sets the stage for a potentially big season; they are set to play host to the conference tournament and will go as far as Billings, a legitimate 7-foot NBA prospect, can take them. He must become more assertive offensively, and the improvement of some of the league's other teams hampers this one's chances. Maryland-Baltimore County Top three: PG Rob Gogerty, PF Cory McJimson, SF John Zito. On the rise: Long-time assistant Randy Monroe takes over as coach, and he'll have nearly everyone back from last year's squad. They went 7-21, so that's not necessarily good news, but in Gogerty and McJimson, he has a few decent pieces. Stony Brook Top three: PF Cori Spencer, SF Mike Popoko, SG Mitchell Beauford. On the decline: Popoko and Beauford had strong freshman seasons, but it remains to be seen how much the loss of graduated point guard D.J. Munir hampers their development. Spencer takes up a lot of space in the paint and is effective, but there has to be more production around him.

If there's a positive for having the game televised it was today. I walked into another department in our office today and someone (a $iena fan actually) was talking about how good Bazan was. He had seen the game on TV and was raving about him. He asked me why the hell he would ever hand off to someone else.

I think you're right UA66. The white team "won" by 6 or 8 points.

One important thing I left out before was saying what a terrific idea the open scrimmage was. Several people I talked with at the football game agreed that it was a fantastic opportunity to see the new players and how the veterans have developed. The whole thing was well done and fan friendly. I had hoped there would be more people there but there were certainly enough there to warrant holding the event. By no means did Dyson look bad. As Brown pointed out those open floor scrimmages are hard to evaluate what the post players can do when the guards are taking alot of shots. Dyson would have started last year and had some nice moves around the hoop with Zoellner guarding him. If he gets the ball consistently and figures out how good he can be he will be alot of trouble for other teams. As expected Zoellner sucked up a bunch of rebounds. Brown said he wouldn't be surprised if Zoellner averaged around double digits in rebounds.

Brown was asked the same question during the Q+A and he didn't really answer. Probably just because there is so much new talent to evaulate. My guess for the starting five would be: Iati J. Wilson Jordan Levi Zoellner After watching Saturday it would be tempting to find a way to get Brent Wilson in there. My only concern would be Levi playing against bigger PF and defending them. His ability to shoot and Zoellner's size will really cause problems for people.

Hello Friends, Family, and Alumni of UAlbany Volleyball! We just finished off a busy week. Three matches since the last e-mail blast has made it five matches in the last nine days that we played. We started off the week playing at Binghamton, who started the week third in the conference. With two starters out nursing injuries, the team really picked each other up and performed at a high standard and limiting their co-conference player-of-the-week to 10 kills and .185 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Shelby Goldman was virtually unstoppable on the outside with 14 kills and a .542 hitting percentage. And sophomore Kristin Fiorillo stepped in at the libero position and had one of her best matches for the purple and gold. Their play led to a 3-0 win (30-23, 30-16, 30-28) over our in-state rivals. On Friday we had one of the most exciting volleyball matches ever played on campus against 2nd place Northeastern. They were out to prove that they had improved since our win at their place three weeks ago and we were out to prove that we were the dominant team in the conference. The match featured some incredible defensive plays by both teams and some amazing rallies. Both libero's were fantastic. The biggest difference on this night was the team's outside hitters. Goldman and Junior Ashley Hunter had 16 and 19 kills respectively, and both hit over .400 for the match. By the end of the night, we had lost our first game at home, but we responded great and came back very strong and ended up winning the match in four (30-20, 18-30, 30-14, 30-18). Junior Eileen Nicole Rodriguez was recognized prior to the match by Athletic Director Lee McElroy for breaking the NCAA career service aces record the week before. The following afternoon was our match against Hartford. The highlight of the match was the coming-out party for freshman Ashley Crenshaw who had 7 kills, hit .500, and led the team with 4 blocks. Although we were playing the last place team in the conference, the team came ready to compete, as was evidenced by the head-over-heels play by Ashley DeNeal into the wooden stands, and Shelby Goldman running full-speed into the officials stand. Shelby's probably still sporting a mark across her forehead, and DeNeal probably woke up feeling like she got ran over by a Mack truck! By match end, the Great Danes had another great win (30-17, 30-15, 30-12). Here is what Kristin Fiorillo had to say about the week: "This past week was really exciting for our team. We took a couple steps closer to the most anticipated part of our season (Conference Championship!) Sweeping Binghamton on Tuesday night was great because it was our first win of the second round of the regular season conference play. After Tuesday night the whole team could not wait for our match up with Northeastern on Friday. We played some great volleyball and boosted our confidence even more. I really feel that our Saturday game vs. Hartford finished the week off perfectly. As a team we set specific goals for ourselves, and ended up meeting them and then some. Even with the line-up switched up a little bit we still accomplished our goals and everyone stepped up to play. The season seems to be getting better and better; and our team is having more fun with every game we play." Our last regular season home matches of the year are this week, and will be capped off with Senior Night on Saturday. I want to encourage you to come as we recognize Jill Dombrowski and Susan Spierre prior to the match. Their importance to the program is impossible to measure. They have been strong leaders and examples to everyone that has come in after them. They have spent numerous summer days on campus working out on their own, improving their games, and being two of the most coachable players that I've been around, and their hard work and dedication most definitely can be seen by the progress of the program. They will leave here as the first four-year players to leave UAlbany with a winning Division I record (not a small task considering their freshman year record). 2001 2002 2003 2004 (so far) 4-20 overall record 16-15 overall record 24-10 overall record 22-5 overall record 1-13 conference record 5-7 conference record 9-5 conference record 10-0 conference record # 269 national ranking # 205 national ranking # 102 national ranking # 62 national ranking Please come out and support these two great players and people and give them the standing ovation that they both have earned and deserve!!!! Fri. STONY BROOK 7:00 pm Sat. UMBC 7:00 pm (Senior Night) I know this is already an extremely long e-mail, and I apologize for that if you are still reading. I had someone e-mail me last week and asked that I explain the box scores and what things mean, I will do so briefly. GP=Games played K=Kills E=Errors TA=Total Attempts PCT=Hitting percentage. A great percentage for outside hitters is .250, for middles .275. And anything over .230 for the team is great. A=Assists SA=Service Aces SE=Service Errors (good teams will have a 1 ace/2 error ratio) RE=Receiving Errors DIG=Should be obvious BA/BS/BE=Block Assist (two or more people jump)/Block Solo (jump by yourself)/Block Error (net violation) BHE=Ball handling error (lift or double contact) POINTS= Kills+Aces+Blocks NATIONAL RANKINGS 1st Eileen Nicole Rodriguez Aces/game 1.00 7th Team Aces/game 2.45 23rd Team Hitting percentage .271 28th Team Kills/game 16.32 We look forward to seeing you on the road or in the stands at home! Thanks for your support! GO DANES!!! Kelly Sheffield UAlbany Volleyball

We were guessing there were around 100 people or so for the scrimmage. Becker and Martineu from Fox Sports were the only local media I recognized. I know there were other posters there and I hope they'll fill in the gaps in my memory. It was tough to get a handle on what was going on with 7 new players and Wilson back. The best news was Jamar Wilson. He looked healthy and was on the floor diving for loose balls so the knee seems fine. He split defenders a couple of times in the open floor and drove into the lane, hung in the air and shot like we saw him do often his freshman year. After the scrimmage he came into the stands to shake hands with the crowd and to thank them for coming-he's a great ambassador for the program and a class act. Lucious Jordan looked great. After not having seen him play for a while I forgot how good he is. He and Wilson were on different teams for the scrimmage but the two of them together will be scary. He hit a bunch of threes and drove to the hoop against Wilson several times. Really strong and he threw down a terrfic dunk on a fast break. Really liked what we saw of Brent Wilson. He shot the ball well and held his own rebounding. Nailed a bunch of threes and overall I thought he looked the best of the freshman. Iati looked like he added some muscle this year. Popped some 3s as expected. He was playing tough D on Lillis who it looked like they were auditioning for the backup PG spot. Lillis looked good handling the ball but I don't think he shot much. Zoellner will cause some problems for people. Caught the ball well down low and can shoot over just about anyone guarding him. The thing that impressed me for a guy who hasn't played alot was that he seemed to pass real well from the double team. A couple of times the defense collapsed on him when he had the ball and he found the open guy who then nailed an open three. Brown said after the scrimmage about Zoellner that it's tough to gauge post players offensive abilities in a scrimmage situation because there was so much up and down and guys aren't used to playing with a big guy. He said in a game situation they would have called some plays for him. It seemed the same thing for Dyson who was solid. He looked tenative to me a few times when he caught it and just looked to get rid of it. He did make a nice move against Zoeller in the lane to get the basket and get fouled. He hit a couple jumpers in the lane. Big and strong but overall I don't think he played as much as B.Wilson. Admittedly I was looking mostly at the newcomers but Levi looked good. Leaner than last year and handled the ball better. Wyatt was Wyatt. Didn't see a ton of Q but he looks a little more comfortable handling the ball than he did last year. Dribbled through traffic a couple of times which I don't recall him doing in the past. Knotts knocked down some shots as well. I don't know if they kept stats on the game but it seemed like Perry took alot of shots. Camped out at the three point line and was as good a shooter as advertised. I don't know if it was bad defense or what but he seemed to have knack for getting open. Of the freshman I expected the least from Bauman. He is very thin but he made some terrific passes. Of the four freshman it seemed Lillis and B. Wilson got the most time but Bauman was better than I thought. I'm not sure I saw him take a shot himself but he set up some easy baskets for other people. Courtney Johnson played some as well. He looks to have improved his scoring and he looked to score when he knocked down some open shots. Hopefully he'll find his way onto the court on a regular basis. After the scrimmage Brown, J. Wilson, Levine and Jordan had a Q+A in the hall of fame room. Brown was asked about his starting five and he said his finishing five was more important to him that his starting five. He said this team will not have trouble scoring and we will not have to live with any seven minute scoring droughts like last season. He said with a healthy Jamar Wilson last year the team would have won double digit games. He didn't offer any predicitions on wins for this year. He was asked about who his point guard would be and I don't remember his answering. I think there alot of options open with three weeks of practice left.

Pretty poor time mangement during the end. A couple of times when they were trying to run out the clock they snapped the ball with 15+ seconds left on the play clock instead of running it down. Bazan had fumbled a couple of snaps earlier and in the stands we were talking about how he should be in the shotgun during that final possession when he lost another fumbled snap. You could certainly see why UCLA recruited Wagners QB. If he had any kind of a line they would be eating the conference up. Sorry to hear about Vidal. I like Omar Johnson but it seemed like he played as much today out of necessity as anything else. All that depth we had at running back earlier this year is gone.

RODRIGUEZ SETS NCAA VOLLEYBALL CAREER RECORD Baltimore, Md. – Junior Eileen Nicole Rodriguez became the NCAA Division I career service aces leader with a season-high 11 aces in UAlbany’s 3-1 victory over UMBC in America East Conference women’s volleyball action on Friday, Oct. 22 at the RAC Arena. Rodriguez entered the match needing seven aces to break Seton Hall’s Casie Alexander’s career record of 416. Rodriguez, who recorded a double-figure match total for the 11th time as collegian, now stands at 421. "I just started serving and once the first one or two came, I got on a roll," said Rodriguez, who eclipsed a mark established in 1993. "Then after I broke it, I served a couple of more because I was so excited. I didn’t expect it to happen this soon." Rodriguez, a left-hander who uses a jump-serve technique, already holds the NCAA single season record with 207 service aces during the 2002 season. "The single-season record was very special because it was the first one," explained Rodriguez, whose team remained in first place in the conference standings with a perfect 6-0 mark. "This is bigger and makes me happier and more emotional. I’m just really happy that I did it." Shelby Goldman’s 26 kills led four Great Danes in double figures. Ashlee Reed finished with a double-double as she recorded 14 kills and 10 digs. Ashley Hunter and Ashley Green each chipped in with 11 kills. Blair Buchanan amassed a match-high 58 assists. Emily Berman and Julia Hood registered 14 and 11 kills, respectively for the Retrievers (12-11, AE 2-4). UAlbany (18-5) extended its winning streak to 12 straight with the four-game win. The Great Danes continue conference action on Saturday at 4 p.m. at America East-rival Stony Brook.

At least the NEC is trying to do something to preserve itself. I agree with most of the people on the AGS board that the schools in the conference have to make more of a commitment to football and then try to get an autobid and not vice-versa. I realize alot of people here have A10 aspirations for Albany but I think the NEC moving up as a conference would be a good solution to the evaporating non-scholly 1AA football situation.

It's probably a bit early for this but since King Dane brought it up, why not have it as a poll question?

I agree Statefan. They should especially saturate Section 200 with shirts. The other night as my wife and I were checking out at the grocery store we turned around to see a giant poster of Jon Iati. It was part of the Pricechopper Advanatge thing that they do with UA. Great to see them get some free promotion that way. Now if we can get Stewarts to replace the $iena videos with Albany ones in their stores we'd be all set.

I got something in the mail yesterday saying after the scrimmage there would be a Q+A with Coach Brown. This is a great idea and I'm looking forward to it.

Just wanted to welcome you to the board KingDane. This will be by far the best team Albany has brought into this game. You have to remember it was a pretty close game two years ago-$iena up by a point with 30 seconds left when Haddix got fouled for a 3 point play. Both teams have their variables this year and for the first time it will be Siena that needs their freshman (point guard anyway) to produce right away, not Albany.

I'd posted a couple weeks ago that Albany supposedly offered Moburg. On the Purple Eagles site they are reporting he verballed to the Niagara.

I appreciate both of your concern for the well-being of the site. I actually didn't know where the story came from and was probably better off. I suspect if Blue Ribbon or whoever were going to take action they would simply suspend whoever copied it from their site but I may be wrong. I'll look into it but I hope I don't have to track down the source of everything posted here.

Hello Friends, Family, and Alumni of UAlbany Volleyball! The first half of the conference season came to a close following this weekend's matches at UMBC and Stony Brook. Both teams took the opening game from us - the first time all season that we've lost a game in conference. But both times the team responded well to the challenge and took the next three games. The big news from the weekend, outside of the wins, was junior Eileen Nicole Rodriguez breaking the NCAA career record for service aces! Although it would have been nice to do in front of our fans, it was a special moment none-the-less. In the forth game at UMBC we were down 19-14 when she went back to serve. When she was done, we had a 24-19 lead with seven of the points being aces. During this stretch is when she tied and broke the record. Obviously our team was very excited for her at the time! When she was done, she had 11 aces on the night, which was the eleventh time in her career that she has had double digit aces in a match. Sophomore Shelby Goldman also had a huge match as she hammered 26 kills in 43 attempts for a .558 hitting percentage. On Saturday we played a very tall Stony Brook team. After losing game one, and being down by more than ten points in game two, we started playing very well and made one heck of a comeback. We really showed our composure and confidence as a team this weekend when other teams had us against the ropes. Sophomore Ashley DeNeal had an absolute amazing match in the backrow with 34 digs. We often praise our attackers, but she was magnificent defensively. Sophomore setter Blair Buchanan also set a school record with 71 assists. But the player of the weekend was probably junior Ashlee Reed. She has been absolutely dominating since the conference season has started and this weekend was no different. She had 30 kills, 3 errors, in 56 attempts for a .482 hitting percentage. She also averaged 3 digs and a block per game, while passing 67% of her passes perfectly. The past month she has established herself as the best all-around player in the conference and is still getting better. The team now stands at 19-5 overall with a 7-0 America East Conference record as we head into the second half of the conference schedule. Also, Rodriguez was named co-player of the week in the conference, one week following Goldman's player of the week honor. Buchanan was also named conference setter of the week for the 5th time in the last six weeks. This is what Ashley Reed had to say about the weekend: "This weekend was one for the record books! Eileen Rodriguez shattered the NCAA Div.I record for service aces in a career, Blair Buchanan broke a personal and school record for number of assists in a game (71) and Ashley DeNeal had a personal best 34 digs against the amazons of Stony Brook. In both of the games on Friday and Saturday, we started out a little slow but we gained momentum and we played as a team and came out with a 3-1 victory against UMBC and Stony Brook. Most importantly, our team never stopped fighting. We were down by more than a few points a couple of times but we didn't let that phase us. Now we are 19-5 overall, 7-0 in conference play and looking forward to sweeping the next half of conference. We know all the teams are coming after us and that's the way we want it." I also want to say that it was great to see '88 UAlbany graduate Yvette Rooks-Worrell and her daughter at UMBC. This week we play at Binghamton, before playing the next four matches here at home. I am told that there will be a special presentation for Eileen at our next home match and I will confirm that when I know the details. It would be great to have a huge crowd on hand to let her know how much we appreciate her accomplishment and to also get rowdy when 2nd place Northeastern comes to town. Tues. @ Binghamton 7:00 pm Fri. NORTHEASTERN 7:00 pm Sat. HARTFORD 4:00 pm (following the football game) We look forward to seeing you on the road or in the stands at home! Thanks for your support! GO DANES!!! Kelly Sheffield UAlbany Volleyball

That is a great preview. The other stuff I've seen has been a waste of time compared to that. If you can take Levine being described as a 4 as a hint for the starting lineup. It sounds like maybe Iati, Wilson, Jordan, Levine and Zoellner will start with Perry, Q and Wyatt the first ones off the bench. Going from the roster weight on the website Wilson, Iati and Q have gained 10 lbs since last year.

I forgot that was in the media guide wasn't it? I remember seeing Dyree Wilson play against $iena in the MAAC title game a couple of years ago. Wilson had 27 points and Iona went on to win and go to the NCAAs.

Welcome to the board Clipper71! I thought because it was an NCAA record that they would have some mention of it on their site. I was wrong. The new Pablo's rankings are out. Albany is down to 90 in the Pablo ranking and up to 62 in the Kern rankings.

For a "Beat Siena" button: Jamar Wilson had a cousin who played for a MAAC team that I believe went to the NCAA tournament. Can you name him?

I went to the NCAA site today, I figured there would be a write-up about E-Rod's record. There's nothing, zip. She breaks a career record in her junior year and they make no mention of it. That stinks. NCAA Volleyball. In better news she was named player of the week. Blair Buchanan was named Setter of the Week (again).

Looking forward to see him and all the new-look Danes Saturday morning. There's an open scrimmage scheduled for 10 o'clock.

Story in today's TU about Wilson. Danes' guard a new player

It was very nice the way the schedule worked out yesterday. 3 different sports had games against Stony Brook. Volleyball-Albany 3-1 over the Brook Soccer-Albany 3-0 over the Brook Football- Albany 27-22 over the Brook. Bazan with 230 yards rushing is insane. Still in the conference hunt with Central Conn and Monmouth playing next week.