Volleyball | 9/5/2019 3:26:00 PM
Moon Township, Pa. – Coming off three victories at its season-opening tournament, the
Robert Morris University volleyball team hits the road for the first time in 2019 at the Golden Flashes Classic. The Colonials will play one match on Friday, Sept. 6, at 5:00 p.m. against Idaho State, then finish the invitational with a pair against Valparaiso (1:00 p.m.) and host Kent State (6:00 p.m.) on Saturday, Sept. 7.
MATCH #4
Robert Morris Colonials (3-0, 0-0 NEC) vs. Idaho State Bengals (3-1, 0-0 Big Sky)
Golden Flashes Classic, Match #2
Friday, September 6, 2019 // 5:00 p.m. // Kent, Ohio – Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center
Live Video: Golden Flashes TV // Live Stats: KentStateSports.com
MATCH #5
Robert Morris Colonials (3-0, 0-0 NEC) vs. Valparaiso Crusaders (2-2, 0-0 MVC)
Golden Flashes Classic, Match #5
Saturday, September 7, 2019 // 1:00 p.m. // Kent, Ohio – Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center
Live Video: Golden Flashes TV // Live Stats: KentStateSports.com
MATCH #6
Robert Morris Colonials (3-0, 0-0 NEC) @ Kent State Golden Flashes (2-1, 0-0 MAC)
Golden Flashes Classic, Match #6
Saturday, September 7, 2019 // 6:00 p.m. // Kent, Ohio – Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center
Live Video: Golden Flashes TV // Live Stats: KentStateSports.com
Last Time Out
Robert Morris opened the 2019 season and UPMC Events Center last weekend at the RMU
Sheraton Invitational. The Colonials made themselves right at home, capturing three wins over Manhattan, Elon, and McNeese.
RMU swept the Jaspers in the debut of its new arena, winning 25-15, 25-19, and 25-17.
Emma Granger recorded the first point in venue history with a kill, and her eight tied for the team lead with
Erika Wilt and
Maria Alfano. Alfano added eight blocks (two solo) as the Colonials recorded 12.5 total rejections as a team. RMU hit .234 on 107 swings and served up five aces, three coming from Granger.
In the Friday nightcap, the Colonials were taken to five sets by Elon, but ultimately came away with the win (25-17, 18-25, 27-25, 24-26, 15-7). RMU hit .202 for the match, with Alfano and
Alyssa Hudak collecting nearly half of the team's 64 kills. The junior middle blocker led the Colonials with 16 and Hudak added 15, while
Whitney Brown posted a 31-assist, 12-dig double-double.
The block party continued into Saturday as RMU finished off the weekend sweep with a four-set triumph over McNeese (25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 25-16). Alfano established a new career high with 11 blocks (two solo), topping the previous standard she set against Manhattan. Granger (12),
Mirna Sarjanovic (11), and Alfano (10) all recorded double-digit kills, and Brown registered her second straight double-double with 28 assists and 10 digs.
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 has started 3-0 for the fifth time in school history, joining the 1987, 2001, 2003, and 2008 sides. The 2008 team would begin its campaign at 4-0 and ultimately capture the NEC regular-season title with a perfect 8-0 record. The Colonials' 2001 and 2003 squads would complete the double with NEC regular-season and tournament crowns.
> After a dream debut weekend in their new arena, the Colonials were bestowed with a pair of
Molten/NEC weekly awards as setter
Whitney Brown was named Co-Player of the Week, and classmate
Maria Alfano earned Defensive Player of the Week accolades. Brown was named RMU
Sheraton Invitational MVP after posting back-to-back double-doubles and a 6.50 assist-per-set average, while Alfano collected 25 total blocks for an average of 2.08 per frame.
> RMU was stout at the net in its home tournament, with
Maria Alfano shining the brightest. The junior eclipsed her single-match high in blocks twice, with the new standard of 11 coming in four sets against McNeese. The 11 rejections were tied for the fourth most in single-match program history, and fell one shy of tying the record for a four-set match.
> In addition to Alfano's entrance into the single-match record books, there was movement in the career lists.
Whitney Brown moved into ninth in assists with 1,052 now to her name, while
Emma Granger is now tied for sixth in service aces (119). The junior middle blocker also entered the top 10 in total blocks with 227.
> 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
> 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.
> 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 134-155 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.
History Lesson
RMU is 1-1 all-time against Idaho State, playing them in a pair of neutral site contests in 2007 and 2014. The Colonials defeated the Bengals in a five-set match at the 2007 UC Riverside Classic, behind a 14-kill, 13-dig double-double by Jennifer Stambaugh. Tawnya Storino nearly posted a triple-double in the win, tallying 52 assists, 19 digs, and eight kills. At the 2014 Omni Invitational, RMU fell to ISU in three sets.
In their only meeting with Valparaiso, the Colonials dropped a three-set match at the 2011 WVU Mountaineer Invitational. Hannah Veith recorded a team-high nine kills on a .389 hitting percentage, but RMU hit just .095 as a team in the defeat.
The Colonials are 3-14 all-time against Kent State. The two squared off last season in Moon Township, with RMU getting its first win of the season in five sets.
Alyson Londot (15 kills, 10 digs) and
Whitney Brown (32 assists, 10 digs) both posted double-doubles, with the former serving up a team-best three aces.
Emma Granger and
Emily Devlin combined for nine block assists, as the Colonials tallied nine total team blocks over the match.
Know Your Opponent
Selected sixth in the Big Sky Preseason Coaches' Poll, Idaho State has gone 3-1 to begin 2019. The Bengals won a pair of matches against Albany (3-1) and Abilene Christian (3-1) at Omaha's season-opening tournament, and took down Utah Valley in four sets in their home opener. Senior Haylie Keck has three double-doubles in the early going and is averaging 3.47 kills and 3.13 digs per set.
Valparaiso will enter this weekend with a 2-2 record, grabbing a couple wins at the Hampton Inn Invitational against Murray State (3-1) and IUPUI (3-1). Picked seventh in the Missouri Valley Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Crusaders are led by junior Peyton McCarthy, who is hitting .221 with 2.87 kills per set and 0.73 blocks per set thus far.
Kent State comes into its home tournament with a 2-1 mark, topping Eastern Kentucky (3-0) and Gardner-Webb (3-0) at last weekend's Charlotte Invitational. Freshman Savannah Matthews has adjusted quickly to the college game, averaging 3.60 kills and 3.30 digs per set over three matches. Sophomore Erin Gardner was named MAC Defensive Player of the Week after collecting 66 digs in the Golden Flashes' two-win weekend.
Coming Up
Robert Morris returns home for a single match, welcoming local foe Duquesne to the UPMC Events Center on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The Colonials and Dukes are set to square off at 7:00 p.m., with the game being streamed live on NEC Front Row.
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