Volleyball | 8/29/2019 10:00:00 AM
Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University volleyball team begins its 39th season of NCAA Division I play and raises the UPMC Events Center curtain on Friday, August 30 with the opening day of the RMU Sheraton Invitational. The Colonials will begin the six-match tournament at 12:00 p.m. against Manhattan, followed by a game against Elon at 7:00 p.m. that evening. RMU will close its home invite on Saturday, August 31 at 5:00 p.m. against McNeese State.
Non-RMU contests include Elon against McNeese State at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, McNeese State and Manhattan at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, followed by 3:00 p.m. match between Manhattan and Elon. All six matches will have live stats on RMUColonials.com, and the three RMU contests feature live video on NEC Front Row.
MATCH #1
Manhattan Jaspers (0-0, 0-0 MAAC) @ Robert Morris Colonials (0-0, 0-0 NEC)
RMU Sheraton Invitational, Match #1
Friday, August 30, 2019 // 12:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
MATCH #2
Elon Phoenix (0-0, 0-0 CAA) @ Robert Morris Colonials (0-0, 0-0 NEC)
RMU Sheraton Invitational, Match #3
Friday, August 30, 2019 // 7:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
MATCH #3
McNeese State Cowgirls (0-0, 0-0 Southland) @ Robert Morris Colonials (0-0, 0-0 NEC)
RMU Sheraton Invitational, Match #6
Saturday, August 31, 2019 // 5:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
Rewind
Robert Morris had an up-and-down 2018 campaign, finishing with an 11-18 overall record and 5-9 mark in Northeast Conference (NEC) play. The season included highlight victories over NCAA Tournament participant Eastern Michigan and Houston at home, along with a road triumph at NEC regular-season champion LIU Brooklyn. The Colonials won three of their final four matches last year, and return 11 players from that team.
History Lesson
It will be three relatively new opponents squaring off with RMU in the first competition at the UPMC Events Center. The Colonials have played Manhattan and Elon one time each, while McNeese State is one of two new opponents (Merrimack) on the team's 2019 slate.
Both of RMU's previous meetings with Manhattan and Elon have ended in five-set losses. The Colonials fell to the Jaspers, 3-2, in the 2000 Chesapeake Classic, while the Phoenix topped the hosts in the 2008 Robert Morris Invitational. That latter match featured a 19-kill effort by Amanda Graham '09, and a 14-kill, 11-dig double-double by Charla Drabant '09.
Know Your Opponent
Manhattan was selected to finish tied for eighth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Preseason Poll after finishing the 2018 campaign with a 5-27 overall record and 3-15 mark in conference. The Jaspers' notable returnees include junior middle blocker Erin Hoener, who led the team in hitting percentage (.237) and blocks per set (0.79) last season, and sophomore outside hitter Vivian Donovan, an All-MAAC Rookie Team honoree.
Elon brings back 10 players from its 2018 squad, which went 4-12 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play and 13-15 overall. Sophomore outside hitter Kellyn Trowse was an All-CAA Rookie Team pick for the Phoenix, while junior setter Kodi Garcia started all 28 matches, providing 7.86 assists per set and a team-best 34 service aces.
McNeese State qualified for the 2018 Southland Conference Tournament with an 8-8 mark in league action, and finished 10-22 overall. Like Manhattan and Elon, the Cowgirls were picked to finish eighth in their conference's preseason poll, and return their top point-getter in senior outside hitter Keegan Nelms, who averaged 2.75 kills per set last season. MSU also features Saint Francis U transfer Alexis Lambert, who started 52 matches for the Red Flash over 2017 and 2018.
Know Bobby Mo
> Robert Morris returns a lot of experience with 11 players featuring in last season's side, but does not have a senior on its roster 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.
> Junior middle blocker Emma Granger has gotten off to one of the most promising careers in program history. The two-time All-NEC First Team selection and 2017 NEC Rookie of the Year paced the circuit in service aces (0.49) last season and ranked fourth in hitting percentage (.292), sixth in blocks (0.94), and ninth in kills (2.62). The Dalton, Ohio native racked up double-digit kills in 17 matches, hit at a .300 clip on 13 occasions, and posted five or more blocks in seven contests. She was named Molten/NEC Player of the Week twice and will enter her third year ranked seventh all-time at RMU in service aces with 114.
> Granger's classmates Maria Alfano and Alyson Londot have been nailed-on starters since arriving in Moon Township. Alfano, a middle blocker from Cranberry Township, Pa., slotted seventh in the NEC in hitting percentage (.269) and 10th in blocks (0.85) last season, and reached double figures in kills on four occasions. Londot, an outside hitter out of Utica, Ohio, averaged 2.23 kills per frame and posted a pair of double-doubles. Another junior, Whitney Brown, finished third in the league in assists (8.01) and 10th in service aces (0.26) in her first season as the primary setter.
> Redshirt sophomore Lauren Kolenik enters the fold after transferring in from Eastern Kentucky University. The New Kensington, Pa. native averaged 1.70 kills and 0.37 blocks over 108 sets with the Colonels in 2017. She was a four-time WPIAL All-Section First Team selection in high school at Serra Catholic, and played club volleyball with Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Club.
> The lone freshman on this year's team, Allena Carmody, adds to the program's Pittsburgh pipeline. The Sewickley, Pa. product helped lead North Allegheny to consecutive WPIAL and PIAA AAA championships, collecting 47 consecutive victories along the way. She made Western PA Big 56 Athletic Conference All-Section First Team as a senior, and obtained All-Section and All-WPIAL honors in three of her varsity seasons.
> Following the 2018 season, the Colonials lost three players to graduation in Liz Campbell, Taylor Lord, and Allie Yurkovich. Lord owns a pair of top 10 slots in the RMU record books, claiming eighth in service aces (111) behind Granger and ninth in digs (1,384). Yurkovich was a four-year starter at libero who played in 460 total sets – ranking seventh in program history – and collected the fourth-most digs with 1,670.
The Starr File
Dale Starr begins his 10th season in charge of the Colonials in 2019. 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 an 88-44 conference record and 131-155 mark overall at RMU, and seen his players earn 16 All-NEC nods – nine of those being First Team plaudits.
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.
Coming Up
Robert Morris will play nine of its next 10 matches away from home, starting with the Golden Flashes Classic on Sept. 6-7. The Colonials play Idaho State in their lone match on Friday, Sept. 6, then close the invitational with contests against Valparaiso and Kent State on Saturday, Sept. 7.
Follow the Colonials: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
