Volleyball | 9/26/2019 10:00:00 AM
Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University team closes out the month with the start of Northeast Conference (NEC) play, as the Colonials welcome league newcomer Merrimack to the UPMC Events Center at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27.
MATCH #15
Merrimack Warriors (1-6, 0-0 NEC) @ Robert Morris Colonials (10-3, 0-0 NEC)
Friday, September 27, 2019 // 7:00 p.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – UPMC Events Center
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
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.
> RMU was one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I volleyball before suffering its first defeat. The Colonials' 10 wins are tied for the 14th most nationally and are double what the next NEC team compiled in non-conference play.
> 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.
> Against Eastern Illinois,
Emma Granger matched the school single-match record with 10 block assists and posted the second double-double of her career by adding 13 kills. Granger's first double-double came on Oct. 27, 2017 at Sacred Heart in another 13-kill, 10-block effort.
> Under head coach
Dale Starr, Robert Morris is 7-2 in NEC opening matches. The Colonials have traded wins and losses in the last four, with defeats to Central Connecticut in both 2016 and 2018 as their only blemishes. Friday's contest with Merrimack is just the second time in five seasons that RMU has begun its NEC slate at home.
> The Colonials have been bestowed with six total
Molten/NEC weekly awards this season.
Emma Granger has three to her name, winning back-to-back Player of the Week honors on Sept. 9 and Sept. 16, along with Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 16.
Whitney Brown was named Co-Player of the Week on Sept. 3, and
Maria Alfano and
Nikolette Zanolli captured consecutive Defensive Player of the Week plaudits on Sept. 3 and Sept. 9.
> Both
Whitney Brown and
Emma Granger have moved into the top 10 of the RMU career record books this season. Brown sits ninth in assists with 1,382, 255 shy of the next spot on the leaderboard. Granger owns the fifth spot in service aces (141), eighth in block assists (242), and ninth in total blocks (282).
> 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 an 88-44 conference record and 141-158 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 13 wins shy of 300 for his career, collecting 287 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, 6th in NCAA in blocks per set (3.00)
> 1st in NEC, 19th in NCAA in digs per set (17.02)
> 1st in NEC, 46th in NCAA in opponent hitting percentage (.155)
> 1st in NEC, 49th in NCAA in win-loss percentage (.769)
> 1st in NEC in hitting percentage (.224)
> 1st in NEC in assists per set (11.81)
> 1st in NEC in kills per set (13.11)
> 1st in NEC in service aces per set (1.57)
Individual Rankings
Emma Granger:
> 1st in NEC, 18th in NCAA in service aces per set (0.57)
> 1st in NEC, 22nd in NCAA in blocks per set (1.47)
> 2nd in NEC in hitting percentage (.362)
> 5th in NEC in kills per set (3.02)
Maria Alfano:
> 2nd in NEC, 28th in NCAA in blocks per set (1.43)
> 4th in NEC in hitting percentage (.331)
> 7th in NEC in kills per set (2.76)
Nikolette Zanolli:
> 1st in NEC, 20th in NCAA in digs per set (5.23)
Whitney Brown:
> 1st in NEC in assists per set (9.49)
Emily Devlin:
> 4th in NEC in blocks per set (0.83)
> 10th in NEC in hitting percentage (.242)
Allena Carmody:
> 4th in NEC in service aces per set (0.37)
Erika Wilt:
> 8th in NEC in digs per set (3.09)
Alyssa Hudak:
> 9th in NEC in kills per set (2.65)
Last Time Out
Robert Morris was shut out of the win column at its final non-conference tournament, the Youngstown State Red & White Invitational.
The Colonials suffered their first loss of the season against the tournament hosts in three tight sets (22-25, 26-28, 21-25). RMU received double-digit kill performances from
Emma Granger (12),
Alyssa Hudak (11), and
Lauren Kolenik (10), but was limited to just 3.0 total team blocks defensively. Kolenik registered her third double-double of the season by collecting 16 digs.
Granger hit .692 over 13 swings against Central Michigan, but the Colonials fell to the Chippewas in three sets (24-26, 20-25, 17-25). She also netted four blocks in the defeat, matching
Skylar Clements' four (two solo) for top honors on the team.
RMU held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the invite finale against Eastern Illinois, but ultimately fell in five sets (25-16, 22-25, 25-11, 24-26, 13-15). Granger (13k, 10b), Kolenik (16k, 12d), and
Whitney Brown (40a, 15d) all posted double-doubles in the marathon match, while
Erika Wilt shattered her previous career high in digs with 27.
Allena Carmody served three of the Colonials' nine aces.
History Lesson
This is the first time that Robert Morris and Merrimack have met on the court, with the Warriors beginning the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I competition this season.
Know Your Opponent
Merrimack begins its first taste of NEC competition sporting a 1-6 record, with that victory coming in three sets over Saint Michel's (3-0). The Warriors have dropped matches to Providence (0-3), Southern New Hampshire (0-3), Holy Cross (0-3), Lafayette (0-3), Siena (1-3), and Delaware State (0-3).
Senior outside hitter Catherine Flaherty ranks sixth in the NEC in kills per set (2.80) and ninth in hitting percentage (.243). Merrimack's attack runs through fellow fourth-year Rosie Sperduto, who slots fifth in assists per frame (6.82), while the back line is handled by freshman libero Taelyr Czech and her 3.50 digs per set, which is tied for sixth in the league. At the net, first-year middle hitter Emily Adams has collected nine blocks (two solo) in 15 sets.
Merrimack ranks near the bottom of the NEC in most statistical categories, with its highest marks being in service aces (1.27, 5th) and hitting percentage (.124, 6th). The Warriors are allowing opposing teams to hit .313 against them and average less than one block per set (0.98).
Coming Up
Robert Morris starts up the road portion of its NEC schedule next weekend, with a pair of matches in the New England area. The Colonials take on Bryant on Friday, Oct. 4 at 6:00 p.m., followed by a meeting with Sacred Heart at 6:00 p.m. the next day.
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