Volleyball | 11/14/2019 1:18:00 PM
Moon Township, Pa. – With the Northeast Conference (NEC) regular-season championship and hosting duties for next weekend's conference tournament in hand, the
Robert Morris University volleyball team will look to close out its sixth ever unbeaten run in league play with a pair of matches on the road.
The Colonials' final road weekend starts Friday, Nov. 15 at 6:00 p.m. against Fairleigh Dickinson. RMU then takes on Long Island on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 3:00 p.m. in a match that could be featured in next Friday's NEC Tournament semifinals.
MATCH #28
Robert Morris Colonials (24-3, 14-0 NEC) @ Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (3-25, 2-12 NEC)
Friday, November 15, 2019 // 6:00 p.m. // Hackensack, N.J. – Rothman Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: FDUKnights.com
MATCH #29
Robert Morris Colonials (24-3, 14-0 NEC) @ Long Island Sharks (10-16, 9-5 NEC)
Saturday, November 16, 2019 // 3:00 p.m. // Brooklyn, N.Y. – Steinberg Wellness Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: LIUAthletics.com
Know Bobby Mo
> Robert Morris has a lot of experience on its roster with 11 players featuring in last season's side, but does not have a senior for the first time since 2013. The Colonials have 13 players in all on this year's squad – seven juniors, five sophomores (one redshirt sophomore), and one freshman.
> RMU captured its first NEC regular-season title in 11 years with a five-set triumph against Central Connecticut last Friday. This is the seventh regular-season crown for the Colonials, with the previous six coming over a 10-year span (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008).
> The win over Central Connecticut gave RMU head coach
Dale Starr his 300th career victory. Starr, who is the all-time winningest coach in program history, has 155 wins in 10 seasons at Robert Morris, 96 in six seasons at McNeese, and 50 in three seasons at Mississippi University for Women.
> The Colonials broken the single-season school record for NEC victories last weekend with a pair of wins. RMU now has 14 triumphs in conference, one more than the 2010 and 2012 sides. The team also tied the 2003 Colonials for most home victories with 12, and could tie the 2002 side's record for most road wins with two more this weekend.
> On Monday,
Emma Granger became the first NEC volleyball student-athlete to win six Player of the Week honors in a season since 2012. Granger averaged 4.75 kills, 1.25 blocks, and 0.50 service aces per set over the two matches, highlighted by a stat-stuffing performance of 26 kills, eight block assists, and three aces against Central Connecticut. The junior middle blocker's six Player of the Week awards are a single-season record at RMU, as well as her nine total weekly awards. She has collected 15 total weekly accolades over her career, six more than any other Colonial.
> Entering a pivotal match against Central Connecticut,
Emma Granger had established a new single-match high in kills in back-to-back outings. For an encore, Granger tied the school record 26 kills and shattered the mark for points with 33.0 in a five-set marathon victory. The junior's point total topped the previous record by 4.0, originally established by Rachel Leitch (Nov. 9, 2003 vs. Duquesne), while her kill total matched Megan Bell 15 years ago (Oct. 23, 2004 vs. Long Island).
> This junior class has etched their names throughout the RMU record books with a year and some change left in their careers.
Emma Granger is the program's all-time record holder in service aces (167), and ranks third in hitting percentage (.336), fourth in block assists (308), and seventh in total blocks (356).
Whitney Brown slots eighth in assists with 1,802, while
Maria Alfano ranks ninth in block assists (222) and needs 14 more total blocks to break into the top 10 of that category.
> In the single-season record books,
Emma Granger is nine service aces shy of breaking her own program standard of 61 (2017), and needs 20 more block assists and 16 more total blocks to claim the top spot in those respective categories.
> RMU's 24 wins this season are the third most in program history. This is the first time in 15 seasons the Colonials have won 20 matches, and the eighth 20-win season overall, joining the 1984 (21-25-2), 1992 (20-17), 2000 (21-16), 2001 (30-7), 2002 (27-12), 2003 (23-12), and 2004 (23-9) sides.
> The Colonials have dominated this season's
Molten/NEC weekly awards, collecting 12 of 24 Player and Defensive Player of the Week honors. Granger has nine accolades to her name this season, earning top player honors on Sept. 9, Sept. 16, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, Nov. 4, and Nov. 11, along with defensive plaudits on Sept. 1, Oct. 7, and Nov. 4.
Whitney Brown is a two-time recipient of Player of the Week (Sept. 3, Oct. 7), while
Maria Alfano (Sept. 3) and
Nikolette Zanolli (Sept. 9) each have a Defensive Player of the Week award to their names.
> RMU was one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I volleyball before suffering its first defeat. The Colonials' 24 wins are tied for the sixth most nationally and are eight more than the next NEC team (Sacred Heart, 16-11) has.
> The Colonials' 10-0 start was the second of its kind in athletic department history. Shattering the previous program record for best start at 5-0 (1987), RMU's 10-0 mark matched the 2000 football team for the top spot in department annals. Only five Colonial volleyball teams (1987, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2019) started a season with a 3-0 record, with three of those squads (2001, 203, 2008) capturing either the NEC regular-season title, tournament title, or both.
> Dale Starr is in his 10th season in charge of the Colonials. The 1995 graduate of Northern Colorado has led RMU to seven NEC Tournaments, a pair of league runner-up finishes, the 2015 NEC Tournament title and subsequent NCAA Tournament berth. Starr has and 102-44 (.699) conference record and 155-158 (.495) mark overall at RMU, and seen his players earn 16 All-NEC nods – nine of those being First Team plaudits. For his career, he has 301 wins across three coaching stops (Robert Morris, McNeese, Mississippi University for Women).
> Starr's squads have excelled in the classroom, and last year's was no different. Robert Morris won its second straight NEC Team GPA Award – the program's sixth overall under Starr's watch – with a mark of 3.846, which was the highest for any NEC team since 2014-15, male or female. The Colonials were the recipients of the NEC Institutional Academic Award with a cumulative GPA of 3.432, which was the athletic department's third such accolade and first since 2014.
Team Rankings
> 1st in NEC, 8th in NCAA in blocks per set (2.86)
> 1st in NEC, 10th in NCAA in win-loss percentage (.889)
> 1st in NEC, 11th in NCAA in opponent hitting percentage (.149)
> 1st in NEC, 29th in NCAA in service aces per set (1.68)
> 1st in NEC, 45th in NCAA in digs per set (16.53)
> 1st in NEC, 46th in NCAA in hitting percentage (.248)
> 2nd in NEC in assists per set (11.97)
> 2nd in NEC in kills per set (13.23)
Individual Rankings
Emma Granger:
> 1st in NEC, 7th in NCAA in service aces per set (0.56)
> 1st in NEC, 7th in NCAA in blocks per set (1.51)
> 1st in NEC, 37th in NCAA in hitting percentage (.377)
> 3rd in NEC in kills per set (3.42)
Whitney Brown:
> 1st in NEC in assists per set (10.10)
Maria Alfano:
> 2nd in NEC, 45th in NCAA in hitting percentage (.372)
> 2nd in NEC in blocks per set (1.19)
> 7th in NEC in kills per set (2.75)
Nikolette Zanolli:
> 2nd in NEC in digs per set (4.68)
Allena Carmody:
> 4th in NEC in service aces per set (0.37)
Erika Wilt:
> 9th in NEC in digs per set (3.11)
Emily Devlin:
> 10th in NEC in blocks per set (0.79)
Last Time Out
Robert Morris clinched its first NEC regular-season title in 11 seasons with a five-set victory over Central Connecticut (25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 21-25, 15-8) this past Friday.
Dale Starr won his 300th career match with the triumph, and
Emma Granger broke the single-match record for points and tied the mark for kills.
Granger's historic 33.0-point performance came off the strength of 26 kills, eight block assists, and three service aces.
Alyssa Hudak (13) and
Maria Alfano (12) also netted double-digit kills, while
Megan Cannon provided 43 assists and nine digs from the setter spot.
Nikolette Zanolli collected a team-high 20 digs.
The next day, the Colonials topped St. Francis Brooklyn in three sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-16) to achieve a program-record 14th NEC win this season. The victory also was the team's 12 at home in 2019, tying a school standard.
Lauren Kolenik and Granger shared the high honors in points by each posting 12 kills, two blocks (one solo), and a service aces. Cannon dished out 36 assists after getting the start, and
Allena Carmody fired three service aces.
History Lesson
Robert Morris is 34-7 all-time against Fairleigh Dickinson. That mark includes eight consecutive three-set triumphs and 11 straight wins in the series, with the last loss coming in 2008.
The Colonials held the Knights to a negative-.041 hitting percentage in their three-set rout (25-8, 25-11, 25-9) on Oct. 11. RMU hit .293 as a team, served 11 aces, dug out 59 attacks, and posted 7.0 total team blocks.
Nikolette Zanolli (15),
Erika Wilt (13), and
Allena Carmody (12) all reached double-figures for digs, and Zanolli matched
Emma Granger with three service aces.
On the flip side, the RMU-Long Island rivalry is one of the most even ones in the NEC. The Colonials pulled even with the newly-branded Sharks, 26-26, with a victory on Oct. 12. Over the last 11 matchups, RMU holds the slightest 6-5 edge over LIU, with eight of those matches lasting longer than three sets.
The Colonials' three-set victory over the Sharks (25-22, 25-17, 25-21) on Oct. 12 featured a pair of comebacks, as the hosts trailed 17-14 in the first set and 12-9 in the second. Granger hit .667 with 13 kills to lead RMU, while
Lauren Kolenik and
Maria Alfano added 12 and 11, respectively.
Know Your Opponents
Fairleigh Dickinson is eighth in the NEC standings with a 2-12 record and a 3-25 overall mark. Both of the Knights' conference victories have come against newcomer Merrimack.
Junior setter McKenna Setterlund ranks eighth in the NEC in assists (5.45), while sophomore libero Jaelyn Young holds the same spot in digs (3.19). Third-year outside hitter Magdalena Maksimovic paces FDU offensively with 2.32 kills per set, and sophomore middle hitter Brooke Stevens is the team's top force at the net with 0.78 blocks per frame.
The Knights are fourth in the league in blocks (1.82) and fifth in digs (14.89). FDU ranks seventh in opponent hitting percentage (.232), and eighth in all other statistical categories: hitting percentage (.107), assists (8.30), kills (8.86), and service aces (0.97).
Long Island currently occupies the fourth and final NEC Tournament spot at 9-5, with matches against Saint Francis U and RMU remaining. The Sharks are a half-game ahead of Central Connecticut entering the weekend.
Senior outside hitter Kora Schaberl leads the NEC in kills at 3.83 per set, while freshman Karolina Nova slots fifth in both kills (3.07) and service aces (0.36). Fourth-year setter Amanda Hubbard is third in the league in assists (8.09) and sophomore libero Anastasia Scott slots fourth in digs (3.88).
The Sharks are fifth in the NEC in both assists (11.26) and kills (11.92). LIU also ranks sixth in hitting percentage (.180), opponent hitting percentage (.224), service aces (1.33), and digs (14.62), and seventh in blocks (1.54).
Coming Up
Robert Morris begins its quest for a ninth league tournament title and seventh NCAA Tournament berth next weekend when it hosts the NEC Tournament. The Colonials, Sacred Heart, and two other yet-to-be-determined teams will meet in Moon Township for the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 22, with the championship played on Saturday, Nov. 23.
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