Volleyball Heads to Baltimore for UMBC Tournament
9/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
The Youngstown State volleyball team will compete in its final in-season tournament this weekend with three matches at the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament at UMBC's Retriever Activities Center.
The Penguins will play UMBC on Friday at 7 p.m. before battling Fairleigh Dickinson and Norfolk State on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Live stats and live video will be available for all of the tournament's matches at umbcretrievers.com.
Youngstown State is looking to translate moral victories into the win column. The Penguins have been much more competitive than in 2010, but they are still looking for their first win of the campaign. They have taken four of their eight opponents to five sets, and YSU is coming off an encouraging effort at home against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday. The Guins lost 25-20, 25-16, 18-25, 25-20 to the Eagles, which was much better than the 25-14, 25-19, 25-10 showing in Ypsilanti, Mich. in 2010. Freshman Alexis Egler (Clarkston, Mich.) finished with a career-high 18 kills, and Missy Hundelt (St. Charles, Mo.) earned her fourth double-double.
About UMBC: UMBC enters the weekend with the most wins of the field with six. The Retrievers improved to 6-3 with a three-set win over Navy on Tuesday. UMBC has won six of its last seven since opening the season with losses to No. 22 Long Beach State and No. 7 Washington. All but one of the Retrievers' matches has lasted three sets. Freshman outside hitter Hannah Schmidt averages a team-best 3.68 kills per set, and senior setter Alexandria Spaay has 13 aces. Junior middle blocker Katie Kelly averages 1.08 blocks, and UMBC averages 2.27 blocks per set as a team. The Retrievers were picked to finish second in the preseason America East poll. YSU has never played UMBC in volleyball.
About Fairleigh Dickinson: Fairleigh Dickinson has won four straight matches to push its record to 5-2. The Knights beat Rider, Saint Peter's and Lafayette in a tournament last weekend and knocked off La Salle in five sets on Wednesday. Junior outside hitter Meaghan Wheeler is averaging 5.58 kills per set, which is more than double of any other player on FDU's roster. Senior middle blocker Sarah Berkland is averaging a team-high 0.88 blocks per set, and senior libero Kelsey Semler is averaging 5.23 digs. Fairleigh Dickinson is hitting .147 as a team and averaging 1.71 blocks per set. FDU was picked to finish tied-for-sixth in the nine-team Northeast Conference. YSU is 2-0 all-time against the Knights with wins in 2005 and 1996.
About Norfolk State: Norfolk State was swept in its only three matches of the campaign last weekend against Tennessee State, Troy and Mercer. The Spartans had a tournament at Hofstra the opening weekend cancelled because of Hurricane Irene. Junior middle blocker Charlotte Armsetad averages a team-high 3.44 kills per set, and libero Noelle Eagles is averaging 4.22 digs per set. The Spartans were picked to finish fourth in the Northern Division of the MEAC in a preseason poll. YSU swept Norfolk State in 2008 in the only previous meeting between the two programs.
Egler's Best Match Comes in Home Debut: Youngstown State freshman Alexis Egler saved her best match of the season for her first career match at Beeghly Center. The Clarkston, Mich. native blasted a career-high and match-high 18 kills against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday evening. She connected on 18 of her 37 attempts and had just four errors for an attack percentage of .378. She added two aces, five digs and a block. Egler's previous career high was nine kills against Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 6.
Carlisle, Hundelt Go For 20: In YSU's match against Southeast Missouri State, Penguins sophomores Missy Hundelt and Jackie Carlisle accomplished a rare feat by both going over the 20-kill plateau. Carlisle finished with a career-best 24 terminations for her the 20-plus match of her career. Hundelt posted 21 kills for her second 20-kill match of the season. The last time that at least two Penguins totaled kills in the twenties was when Jessica Fraley (23), Ebony Barbosa (23) and Ruth Boscaljon (22) all had over 20 against Wright State on Oct. 12, 2007. YSU did not have one match last season where a Penguin had at least 20 kills.
Goin' to Five Shows Guins' Improvement: Youngstown State has taken four of its eight opponents to five sets this year, but the Penguins haven't been able to get that elusive first victory. YSU was ahead of Siena and Syracuse 2-0 before dropping the next three, and the Guins were up 2-1 on Southeast Missouri State. On the bright side, YSU has already won 10 sets this year through the first eight matches. The Penguins took just 15 sets last year, and six of those came in wins against Howard and Chicago State.
Hundelt Maturing as Sophomore: Sophomore Missy Hundelt is consistently playing at the high level she showed signs of last year as a freshman. Hundelt has 126 kills and is hitting .193 this season in 34 sets while playing on both the left and right sides. Last year she had 198 kills and hit .086 in 86 sets on the left side. If she maintains her current pace of 3.71 kills per set, she would have 319 kills in the same number of sets as last year. That would be an increase of 121.
Newcomers Contributing: Youngstown State has gotten some nice contribution from many of its newcomers this season. Sophomore transfer Erika West and freshman Alexis Egler have both started every match and played in every set. West, who played at Edinboro in 2010, leads the Penguins with 3.94 digs per set as the starting libero. Egler is averaging 1.82 kills and 2.06 digs at outside hitter. Shannon Watson (Zoarville, Ohio) has started four straight matches after coming off the bench midway through the Kent State match. Rachel Gambow (Hartville, Ohio) has played in all eight matches so far and is averaging one dig per set. Kelsey Wagy (Greeley, Colo.) is a JUCO transfer who is averaging 1.08 blocks per set. She has only played in 12 sets, though, because of a recent injury. Brianna Bartlett (Bloomington, Ind.) has played in six sets over four matches, and Sam Diebold (Deer Park, Ohio) has played in seven sets.
A Team of Many Underclassmen: Youngstown State's group of seven sophomores and five freshmen have accounted for a very large portion of the Penguins' stats so far this year. Through eight matches, 96 percent of YSU's kills (370 of 385), 96 percent of its block assists (111 of 116), 89 percent of its solo blocks, 87 percent of its digs (372 of 429) and 87 percent of its aces (41 of 47) have come from freshmen or sophomores.
Up Next: YSU opens Horizon League play next weekend with matches at Wright State and Butler.
