Volleyball | 11/7/2019 11:49:00 AM
Moon Township, Pa. – It could be a historic weekend for the
Robert Morris University volleyball team at the UPMC Events Center, as the Colonials close the home portion of their regular-season schedule with a pair of Northeast Conference (NEC) matchups.
RMU hosts Central Connecticut on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7:00 p.m., and welcome St. Francis Brooklyn at 5:00 p.m. the next day. One win would give the Colonials their first NEC regular-season title since 2008 and also mark the 300th victory in
Dale Starr's coaching career.
MATCH #26
Central Connecticut Blue Devils (12-12, 8-4 NEC) @ Robert Morris Colonials (22-3, 12-0 NEC)
Friday, November 8, 2019 // 7:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
MATCH #27
St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers (12-16, 5-8 NEC) @ Robert Morris Colonials (22-3, 12-0 NEC)
Saturday, November 9, 2019 // 5:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.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 is on the cusp of its first NEC regular-season title in 11 years, needing one win this weekend to clinch it and hosting duties for the NEC Tournament in two weeks. The Colonials have won six regular-season crowns in their history, all of which came over a 10-year span (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008).
> Additionally, RMU's next victory will give head coach
Dale Starr the 300th of his career. Starr, who is the all-time winningest coach in program history and picked up his 100th NEC triumph against Sacred Heart, has 154 wins in 10 seasons at Robert Morris, 96 in six seasons at McNeese, and 50 in three seasons at Mississippi University for Women.
> With two wins this weekend, the Colonials could set a pair of single-season records. RMU would move to 14 NEC victories with a weekend sweep, topping 2010 and 2012 sides for most conference wins. A pair of triumphs would also tie the 2003 Colonials for most home victories with 12.
> Emma Granger put together the best three-match stretch of her career last week, winning both
Molten/NEC Player and Defensive Player of the Week in the process. Granger averaged 5.00 kills, 1.90 blocks, and 6.36 points per set, while hitting an eye-popping .500 over 98 swings. She opened the week by hitting .706 with 13 kills at Saint Francis U, then finished a block shy of a double-double with 20 kills and nine rejections (one solo) against Bryant. Last Saturday against Sacred Heart, Granger registered 27.5 points – tied for the second most in a RMU match – on the strength of a career-high 22 kills and eight blocks (one solo). The pair of awards give her eight this season alone (5 POW, 3 DPOW), and 14 for her career.
> Granger's week included a new record, as she took the top spot on the leaderboard for career service aces with her 162nd against Bryant. The junior middle blocker enters this weekend with 163, passing 2001 RMU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Kristie Tuxford (1992-95) for the record. In the career ranks, she also slots third in hitting percentage (.338), fourth in block assists (299), and seventh in total blocks (346), and needs 94 kills to reach 1,000.
> The junior duo of
Whitney Brown and
Maria Alfano also find themselves in the top 10 of the career record books. Brown ranks eighth in assists with 1,790, while Alfano is ninth in block assists with 217. The middle blocker is 20 total blocks shy of breaking into the top 10 of that category as well.
> RMU's 22 wins this season are the fifth 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 21 Player and Defensive Player of the Week honors. Granger has eight accolades to her name this season, earning top player honors on Sept. 9, Sept. 16, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, and Nov. 4, 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' 22 wins are tied for the seventh most nationally and are seven more than the next NEC team (Bryant, 15-14) 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 100-44 (.694) conference record and 153-158 (.492) mark overall at RMU, and seen his players earn 16 All-NEC nods – nine of those being First Team plaudits. For his career, he is one win shy of 300 for his career, collecting 299 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, 7th in NCAA in blocks per set (2.93)
> 1st in NEC, 12th in NCAA in opponent hitting percentage (.149)
> 1st in NEC, 12th in NCAA in win-loss percentage (.880)
> 1st in NEC, 23th in NCAA in service aces per set (1.71)
> 1st in NEC, 44th in NCAA in digs per set (16.51)
> 1st in NEC, 46th in NCAA in hitting percentage (.248)
> 2nd in NEC in assists per set (11.90)
> 2nd in NEC in kills per set (13.16)
Individual Rankings
Emma Granger:
> 1st in NEC, 6th in NCAA in service aces per set (0.56)
> 1st in NEC, 7th in NCAA in blocks per set (1.53)
> 1st in NEC, 33rd in NCAA in hitting percentage (.389)
> 3rd in NEC in kills per set (3.30)
Whitney Brown:
> 1st in NEC in assists per set (10.20)
Maria Alfano:
> 2nd in NEC, 45th in NCAA in blocks per set (1.24)
> 3rd in NEC in hitting percentage (.363)
> 7th in NEC in kills per set (2.76)
Nikolette Zanolli:
> 2nd in NEC in digs per set (4.75)
Allena Carmody:
> 5th in NEC in service aces per set (0.35)
Emily Devlin:
> 6th in NEC in blocks per set (0.83)
Erika Wilt:
> 8th in NEC in digs per set (3.11)
Last Time Out
Robert Morris took full control of the NEC leaderboard this past weekend with a pair of victories over second-place foes Bryant and Sacred Heart. The Colonials opened with a four-set victory over the Bulldogs (26-24, 25-16, 18-25, 27-25) on Friday.
Emma Granger posted 20 kills and nine blocks (one solo) for RMU, as the team registered 15.0 total team blocks and hit .224 for the match. Granger fired an ace in the second set to break Kristie Tuxford's career service aces record.
Whitney Brown tallied 49 assists and 11 digs to complete a double-double, while
Maria Alfano (12 kills) and
Alyssa Hudak (10 kills) joined Granger in double figures for kills.
The Colonials finished off a three-win week with a four-set triumph over Sacred Heart (25-20, 25-21, 22-25, 25-23) on Saturday. The win was the 100th NEC triumph of
Dale Starr's career.
RMU hit at a .313 clip and posted 65 digs and 11.0 total team blocks defensively. Granger collected 22 kills on a .455 hitting percentage and eight blocks (one solo), totaling 27.5 points on the evening – the second most in program single-match history. Brown posted another double-double with 55 assists and 10 digs – her 10th of the season – while
Erika Wilt collected a match-high 22 digs.
History Lesson
Robert Morris is 23-15 all-time against Central Connecticut, having snapped a four-match losing streak in the series in the teams' earlier meeting on Oct. 18. The Colonials trailed for the only time in the NEC slate against the Blue Devils, but managed to pull out a four-set victory (18-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-16). Four RMU players were in double figures for kills (
Maria Alfano,
Emma Granger,
Alyssa Hudak,
Lauren Kolenik), led by Granger and Hudak's 15. Kolenik (14k, 15d) and
Whitney Brown (55a, 10d) registered double-doubles in the victory.
The Colonials will look to sweep the season series against St. Francis Brooklyn for the first time since 2016, as they carry a 39-3 advantage all-time versus the Terriers. RMU won in three sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-20) the first time the teams played this season, thanks in part to a 14.5-point performance by
Maria Alfano. Alfano's 12 kills and four blocks (one solo) led the team, while the Colonials saw four players reach double-digit digs (
Allena Carmody,
Lauren Kolenik,
Erika Wilt,
Nikolette Zanolli), paced by Zanolli's 16.
Know Your Opponents
Central Connecticut is currently fourth in the NEC standings at 8-4, one game ahead of Long Island for the final postseason spot. The Blue Devils are a game behind Sacred Heart for third and trail second-place Bryant by 1.5 matches.
Junior libero Ashlyn Eisenga recently surpassed
Nikolette Zanolli for the top spot in the NEC in digs, averaging 4.84 per frame. Senior outside hitter Gala Galabova is third in blocks (1.08), while freshman opposite hitter Isabelle Roufs ranks fifth in hitting percentage (.334). Junior outside hitter Emma Henderson does a little bit of everything for the Blue Devils, slotting sixth in kills (3.07), eighth in service aces (0.31), and 10th in digs (3.01).
CCSU is high in every NEC statistical category, ranking second in hitting percentage (.228) and opponent hitting percentage (.183). The Blue Devils come in at third in assists (11.72), blocks (1.94), and digs (15.96), fourth in kills (12.33), and fifth in service aces (1.35).
St. Francis Brooklyn is sixth in the NEC table at 5-8 and officially eliminated from postseason contention.
The Terriers have three players ranked inside the top 10 of the NEC in hitting percentage, led by senior middle blocker Weis Hurkmans in second (.375). Fellow fourth-year Taris Pittman slots sixth at .331, and ranks fifth in blocks (0.85). Sophomore libero Kizzy Rodriguez slots third in digs (4.69) and fourth in service aces (0.37), while classmate Angelee Ng is fifth in assists (7.50).
St. Francis Brooklyn is one of the better defensive teams in the conference, ranking second in blocks (2.00) and digs (16.10). The Terriers also slot fourth in hitting percentage (.198) and service aces (1.35), fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.203), and sixth in assists (10.93) and kills (11.82).
Coming Up
Robert Morris finishes up the regular season with a two-match road swing, beginning on Friday, Nov. 15 at 6:00 p.m. against Fairleigh Dickinson. The Colonials then face Long Island at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16, looking to complete a season sweep of the Sharks for the first time since 2010.
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