In their second game of the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament, The UMBC’s women’s volleyball team won all three sets of their match against the Fordham University Rams on Friday, Sept. 11. This would be their second earned victory of the day. Earlier against the Morgan State University Bears, the women won three out of four sets.
The team’s lineup remained relatively the same throughout. Most of the women participated in all three sets, resulting in some impressive statistics. Three players, #16 senior Krystal Williams, #12 senior Sherelle Walker and #10 freshman Maddie Schneider, managed 10 total kills by the time the Retrievers won the third set.
#17 freshman Krystia Negron, another teammate who stayed in the entire duration, delivered a whopping 35 assists to her teammates. #6 freshman Carola De Jesus performed 18 digs, the most for the team.
The first set of the match ended with a score of 27-25. The Retrievers entered the game with force, quickly pulling ahead against Fordham with a score of 8-3. This led to a timeout for the Rams, who quickly caught up with UMBC, narrowing the gap between their scores.
Near the end of the set, the Rams pulled ahead due to two attack errors on the Retriever’s part, the score now 21-20. This led UMBC coach Ian Blanchard to call the team’s first timeout. When the team came back on the court, they gracefully took the lead. #1 freshman Sammie Coffler’s back-to-back serves would end the set with the Retriever win.
The second set closed with a score of 25-23 for UMBC, and the gap between the scores sat closer together than in the first. Fordham would take the lead at one point with a 6-5 score, but UMBC made a comeback with Fordham trailing close behind. However, three scores in a row by UMBC led to a Ram timeout. An exact situation against UMBC, with Fordham narrowing in from 21-15 to 21-19, led to a timeout for the Retrievers.
Two more Fordham victories would tie the game 21-21, but the UMBC women pulled forward. #11 junior Zoya Trendafilova ended the set with a kill, earning the 25th and last point of the set.
The third set concluded with a bigger gap in the final score, 25-20. The first half of the set saw tradeoffs between taking the lead, Fordham pulling forward twice. What caused the gap between the scores was the Retriever’s ability to score three points in a row in the middle of the set. Following an attack error by the Rams, Trendafilova made a kill against the team. Another attack error by Fordham afterwards assisted in the score becoming 15-11.
Fordham, despite defeat, tried to slow down the Retriever’s victory in attempt to make a comeback. When the score was 24-19, one more point to UMBC would close the game. A kill by the Rams would only set back the Retrievers once before Trendafilova made the final kill against Fordham.
As of this game, UMBC has five wins under their belt. The Retrievers will attempt to make it make three victories in a row in their next match against Coppin State University.