Volleyball

[UAalum72]

Box score's on the AE site. Attendance 272, seemed like a lot more.

 

Great comeback after intermission. The Old Announcer said after the third game it looked liked UMBC had shot their emotional bolt and they were wilting; it appears he was right.

[GreatDanes06]

sorry about the broadcast...i did my best...we were having problems with our volume today, but i made the best out of it. If you did listen in, I hope it was ok. Let me know what you all thought.

[Fido]

It wasn't as if UMBC wilted, UA decided to turn it on...and play their game. No way were the Danes going to let up and let someone else celebrate in their gym. Great match for the fans! Once the crowd got fired up & into the march...there was no stopping them. Congratulations to the team and coaches!

 

Let's Dance!

[Dane Pound]

Amazing how quickly the momentum shifted - A fun thing to be a part of. The UMBC fans were a lot of fun also despite the fact that they horned in on the UA chant.

 

The magic of the old gym is that it makes 272 people sould like a lot while the Pepsi made 700 seem like a ghost town. I caught some of the WCDB post-game and you guys were saying it was the best comeback in UA history - off the top of my head I can't think of anything to top it. Great to hear Coach Sheffield's comments on where he wants to take the program. Three straight regular season championships and two tournament championships, he's already built something great here and wants to take it further.

 

Story in today's TU. Albany has applied to be one of the host sites for the NCAA tourney. After near loss, NCAAs

[haggyland]

sorry about the broadcast...i did my best...we were having problems with our volume today, but i made the best out of it. If you did listen in, I hope it was ok. Let me know what you all thought.

17802[/snapback]

 

I listened from home while watching NFL football. The volume was a little inconsistent, but it was nice to be able to listen to the game from the friendly confines of the living room. It would have been nice to have seen in person, but I did not want to push my luck with the little lady.

 

Anyways, good job with the broadcast GreatDanes84, and congratulations to the VBall team....Good luck in the NCAAs.

[GreatDanes06]

yea we had volume problems...it was the plug I had my head set in. It wont be used againt believe you me.

[alum73]

Latest Volleyball blast:

 

Dear Alumni, Friends, and Family of UAlbany Volleyball:

 

It was a big weekend for the UAlbany volleyball program. The America East Conference banquet was held on Friday. For the 3rd year in a row senior setter Blair Buchanan was honored as the conference Setter and Player of the Year. No player in NCAA history has ever won those two awards twice, let alone three times. Senior outside Ashley DeNeal, senior outside Shelby Goldman, and junior middle Ashley Crenshaw joined Blair on the 1st Team, and sophomore middle Kamisha Kellam and sophomore right-side Hillary White were both named to the 2nd Team. Another awesome accomplishment was Buchanan, DeNeal, and Goldman all being honored on the six-member conference All-Academic Team. In the two years that the conference has had an academic team, 6 of the 12 selections have been Great Danes - something we are extremely proud of!

 

Tournament play began on Saturday as we were matched up with Stony Brook and we came out firing on all cylinders winning the first two games 30-12 and 30-17. The Seawolves started serving more aggressively, like we knew they would, to start the 3rd, and we became a little more passive with our serving game as they won 30-27. Game 4 we continued to put on a blocking show and put more pressure on them with the serve and won 30-23. Blair made great decisions all night. We got great production out of our right-side tandem of Hillary White and freshman Sam Jacobson and Kamisha Kellam was virtually unstoppable. In the other semi-final UMBC beat Binghamton in four to reach the final.

 

In the championship, we came out playing pretty well, certainly not great, but probably out-played the Retrievers. We had more kills, better hitting percentage, more digs, and more blocks. The difference was the 7 service errors which handed them the game 30-27. Game 2 belonged to their Freshman of the Year outside as she racked up 7 kills and hit an impressive .636. We had a lot of problems blocking and digging her early and we were off to the locker-room down 0-2 after losing 30-22. I was impressed with how calm the team was during the intermission and still confident. We made a couple of adjustments and went back to work. UMBC jumped on us yet again and winning 22-16 in the third. They were playing some amazing defense. And then things started going our way. We started chipping away and the crowd was energizing us. We clawed back and outscored them 14-4 to win 30-26. We kept momentum going our way as Ashley DeNeal served our way into a big lead to start the fourth as we won 30-18. In the fifth it was back and forth the whole way until Shelby Goldman pounded an overpass to pull out a 15-12 win. It was the first time in conference championship history that a team had come back to win after being in a 0-2 hole. It was a great evening and certainly a time that you are very proud of the teams heart, concentration, and stick-to-it-iveness. For her efforts, DeNeal was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament and was joined on the All-Tournament team with Shelby and Kamisha. But it was a tremendous team effort the entire way. We certainly do not make that Game 3 comeback without senior libero Kristin Fiorillo's 10 digs in the game. Her career as been peppered with coming up big for us in big moments and it was certainly true again on Sunday!

 

Here are Blair Buchanan's thoughts: "It was an indescribable feeling to win the 2006 conference championship on Sunday night against UMBC. We came out a little slow and hesitant, but once we made some adjustments after losing the first 2 games, we made the biggest come back in America East history. UMBC was just 8 points away in the third game when the score was 22-16, but we stayed together as a team and used our experience to our advantage. We worked hard all season long and we were not going to give up without a fight. UMBC played an awesome match, but once we started to gain momentum in game 4 nobody was going to stop us. It took every single person on the team to pull out the win and it was something that I will remember forever! Now we have 2 matches to get better this week out in California on Friday and Saturday and then we will see if we can make history again in the NCAA tournament."

 

On Friday we have Santa Barbara and then Saturday play at Long Beach State, both west coast powerhouses. We are looking forward to testing ourselves against these giants. Then we'll catch the red-eye to get back in time for the Selection Show. If you are able, feel free to join us in the Hall of Fame room at SEFCU Arena on Sunday at 3:00 (ESPN News) to watch the draw.

 

Thanks for all of your support and GO GREAT DANES!!!

 

Kelly Sheffield

 

UAlbany Volleyball

2006 America East Conference Champions!

[UAalum72]

Danes lose to Gauchos 28-30, 30-25, 18-30, 25-30. Good effort, outhitting UC Santa Barbara in the 1st two games, against a good West Coast team (USCB now 18-11) UCSB release

[Dane Pound]

Also a story about the Danes trip to California and Thanksgiving at the Hazells. Holiday trip means more for Hazell - Daily Breeze

[Oldtimer]

Danes fall to Long Beach State 23-30, 17-30, 17-30. California just has more beaches, sand and volleyball players but a great experience for the team.

[clipper71]

The NCAA website has the Danes hosting the first round of the NCAA's this Thursday and Friday. Siena is in the same bracket. UAlbany will play St. John's (30-4) and Siena will play #10 Minnesota. Hopefully they'll use the RACC.

[GreatDanes06]

the bad news is that WCDB won't be covering it. I wish we could, but it can't happen. The sucky thing about being in grad school is that you can't skip classes and that almost all your classes are at night. I get the lovely one falling at 6:50-8:50 pm on Thursday Nights. We are such a small department also that I can't get it covered by anyone else.

 

We will do Fridays match if there is one.

 

Sorry guys, AND TRUST ME WHEN I SAY...I DEBATED THIS ONE LONG AND HARD, AND I JUST CAN'T DO IT, AND IT KILLS ME INSIDE.

[alum73]

I don't think it will be in the SEFCU Arena. They will open the wall and have the bleachers on both sides open.

[Fido]

Hosting the first & second rounds of an NCAA tournament is a very big deal for the University. It is so important that the fans show up for this one. How embarassing would it be for Siena & St. John's to bring in more fans. We need more than the usual 100-200. Please promote this and support this team who have brought so much to this school.

 

And not to find a way to broadcast this is unbelievable! UAlbany has only a few days to pull this thing off and act like they belong in the big time! This team deserves it!