A little love for Volleyball

[dslyank]

How about a little love for Volleyball. They finished 2 and 1 and tied for first in the Kent State tournament. Almost were 3 and 0; lost 3 to 2 to the host in a hard fought 5 set match. Good competition--All recent ncca participants and high conference ratings this year. Volleyball is BIG in the midwest, so this bodes well for UA Volleyball this year.

[alum73]

Always one of my favorite teams to follow and watch. If you haven't attended ca volleyball match, I highly recommend it. It is such a great team sport. I happened to watch one following a football game many year's ago and have been hooked on the team ever since. We hav been steadily improving our play over the years, as have others in the AE. We are starting to compete at a much higher level than we did when I first became a fan.

[Dane4ever]

Ah, your message stirs up good memories for me.

 

Several years ago, when I was still on the UA faculty, I stopped by U Gym to see a match -- I think I had seen a few on TV during tourney time, but really knew little about it. I was hooked immediately by the players' athleticism, the pace of the match, the excitement of close games . . . and it was UA, and I was one of a small % of faculty who strongly supported athletics, all of the teams. The exact facts fail me, but I think this was the 2nd year for a great coach, Kelly Sheffield, and the team the year before had won something like 4 matches. Kelly was a great coach, extremely oriented to appreciating fans, very insightful about marketing -- and a star recruiter.

 

Before he left a few years later, UA had won several AE titles (and thus gone to the NCAAs), and in his last year was ranked somewhere around the Top 40-50 out of 300+ schools playing. He went to Dayton, did wonderful at that program (more NCAAs), then went to Wisconsin -- and two years ago, his Badgers played for the national championship.

 

Wow, what thrilling matches there were in U Gym. I still drop by for a couple during the season . . . and I appreciate the admin's patience, because I think M.J. (Kelly's assistant) has the team going in a promising direction. If you've never been, I encourage you to go . . . as I said, the athleticism of the players is something to behold, and the excitement can get really intense as that ball is being batted back and forth.

[UAalum72]

Volleyball swept New Hampshire today, 18, 23 and 22 to avenge last month's loss to them. Now tied for first place at 8-1 with three matches remaining. Don't know the tiebreaker, if needed. Both teams scored 63 points in their losses.

[haggyland]

Also deserving some Fall sports love are:

 

Women's field hockey: Picked first in conference, finished first in conference...hosting the post-season tourney with the visiting West Coast teams that include Cal and Stanford! I still giggle a little that we are in the same conference as those two.

 

Women's soccer: Picked fourth; finished second. First ever bye in the post-season tourney; hosted and won their game...on to Hartford for the potential first championship of their program.

 

Men's soccer: Picked fifth; currently in first place, with a "control your destiny" game at Binghamton next week to claim their first ever regular season championship, and the number one seed in the post-season conference.

 

Women's cross country: Finished second in the conference to a three-time defending champion New Hampshire team (that was filled with seniors this year). With a couple of more decent recruits UA could be the favorite next season.

 

Men's cross country finished 8th, but they are coached by the same group as the women, so maybe there is a chance for improvement next year.

[Phoenix]

A pretty solid regular season for the majority of our fall teams. Especially great to see teams that haven't historically experienced a ton of success.. like WSOC and MSOC..play well. Here's hoping they can carry it into the postseason!

[haggyland]

1-0 at the half in men's soccer; UA with the lead. First possible regular season conference championship at stake.

[GreatDanes06]

3-0 Danes...REGULAR SEASON CHAMPS!

[alum73]

In a few minutes! Almost got a 4th, just now.

[alum73]

Volleyball comes back from 2-1 down to beat SBU in 5 sets.

[Dane Pound]

Volleyball won again today to move to 10-1 in the conference. UNH is 9-1. I'm not sure what happens if they both finish 11-1 which looks likely at this point.

[haggyland]

A pretty solid regular season for the majority of our fall teams. Especially great to see teams that haven't historically experienced a ton of success.. like WSOC and MSOC..play well. Here's hoping they can carry it into the postseason!

 

By my count the only two programs that haven't won a Division 1 championship so far are women's cross country and tennis.

 

Women's cross country just finished second in the AE Championships and should have a shot at winning next year.

Women's tennis improves every year under coach Gordon Graham and they are no longer blocked by a Boston University team that used to dominate the AE in the sport...now they just need to find a way to stop SBU's mini run of three straight championships.

[UAalum72]

New Hampshire volleyball beats UMBC and gets the #1 and hosts.Bing. Albany plays Stony Brook at 4:00 Friday in Durham.

 

New Hampshire and Albany finished tied for the America East regular season title with identical 11-1 conference records after the Wildcats swept UMBC on Sunday. The tiebreak came all the way down to point winning percentage in conference matches as the Wildcats and Great Danes were even in the first five steps of the tiebreak. The Wildcats edged the Great Danes by winning 930 of 1,628 conference points (57.1%) compared to 1,005 of 1,827 (55.1%) for Albany.

 

 

Bracket http://www.americaeast.com/pdf9/4113510.pdf

Edited November 16, 2015 by UAalum72

[dslyank]

Being tied and totally equal for 5 levels of tie breakers; @ that point a coin flip seemed more in order and more fair. But I guess the rules committee is a lot smarter than I am. Anyhow, I do not like our match up with brook in the first round; they seemed to give us the most trouble this year [took us to five sets both times, even NH did not do that.] Besides home court advantage, HUGE difference between brook and bingo. So for less than 2% difference in the sixth tie breaker, UA gets a significant disadvantage. I guess this will really test our mettle.

 

Any how, good luck and congratulations on an excellent season to the volleyball team.

[jalidanefan]

Ladies playing well in game one vs. SBU. On AEast tv.