Leindecker Career-High 23 Kills Leads UAlbany Volleyball to Defeat Stony Brook in Five for Third-Straight Victory

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The UAlbany volleyball team earned another five-set contest win on the road on Sunday, beating Stony Brook 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 14-25, 25-27, 15-9) for its third-consecutive victory in America East play.

“Stony Brook does a great job making their gym environment very partisan; going up two sets helped, but we got stuck in some rotations that next two sets and let them back in,” said UAlbany coach MJ Engstrom. “I’m really proud that we were able to stay focused and steady the ship.  Gabby [Hansen], Laini [Leindecker] and Tatum [Jungsten] had key serves in the fifth set, and Amanda [Dolan] did an awesome job patrolling the net.

UAlbany (9-8, 4-1 AE) earned the first two sets against Stony Brook (7-13, 3-1 AE), needing the fifth

set to earn the victory.  UAlbany gives Stony Brook its first conference loss of the year and moves into second place in conference play.

“This has been a tough road trip, playing the day we traveled on Friday and coming into Stony Brook after playing five sets two days ago and winning,” said Engstrom.  “We did a great job staying focused and coming back from being down.”

Laini Leindecker led the way with a career-high 23 kills, making it a double-double with 11 digs, while Shannon Hurley ended with 13 kills.  Mikala McCauley also earned a double-double with 51 assists and 13 digs.  As a team, UAlbany finished with 13 blocks, including Amanda Dolan having eight, hitting .292 with nine kills.  Five Great Danes had double digit digs, led by Paula Pinto’s 15.

“We were aggressive on our serves and our middle blockers did a great job,” said Leindecker. “We need to work on focusing through the entire match, but this will improve.  I think it shows a lot about who we are as a team, being able to fight for the fifth set.”

For Stony Brook, Kathy Fletcher hit .357 with 28 kills and 16 digs.  Stephanie McFadden hit .316 with 15 kills and six blocks, while setter Nicole Vogel tallied 55 assists and 12 digs.

Stony Brook began the first set with a 4-0 run.  A Dolan kill in the middle and a Gabrielle Hansen short serve ace got two points back.  After an SBU kill, UAlbany took three-straight, started by kills from Chloe Lamb and Leindecker, to tie the set at 5-5.  A couple more Leindecker kills pushed UAlbany ahead 8-7, with SBU countering with five of the next six, including kills from four different players, for a 12-9 lead.  After a couple of exchanges, Leindecker notched a kill to send Nicole Otero back to serve.  Otero hit two good serves in a row, the first for a Lamb kill off a pass and the second short for an ace, to tie in up 14-14.  The home team got back a two-point lead at 17-15, then UAlbany tied it back up off a Hurley kill and McCauley-Tatum Jungsten combo block for a 18-18 score.  Two kills got the SBU lead back to two at 21-19.  Down 23-21, a Lamb-Jungsten block gave the serve back to UAlbany, then a Kathy Fletcher attack error tied the game at 23-23.  A furious rally ensued the next point, with both liberos making big digs.  McCauley found Jungsten on the slide for the kill to make it set point.  Next point, SBU went to Stephanie McFadden.  Leindecker and Jungsten guarded near the antenna and blocked back the attack to seal the set for UAlbany 25-23.

A kill and solo block by Dolan helped UAlbany take an early 3-1 lead in the second set.  At 4-2, SBU used its own 3-0 run to lead 5-4 as the teams had a tug of war on exchanging the advantage.  Both sides kept getting kills when at 11-10 SBU, Leindecker crushed a kill off the libero.  SBU followed with three attack errors, capped by Jungsten and Lamb blocking McKyla Brooks in the middle, for a 14-11 UAlbany lead.  UAlbany kept its lead with kills until at 17-14, two kills and an ace by SBU helped tie the game at 18-18.  UAlbany used the middles to counter as Dolan hit a kill, then two SBU attack errors, with Dolan blocking the second, made it 21-18 UAlbany.  After an SBU kill, Lamb punched a kill through the block, then Leindecker pushed the ball to an open area in the SBU front row to make it 23-19 Great Danes.  SBU tried to come back with Fletcher adding three late kills.  At 24-23, Leindecker tipped a kill over the blocker and down to the 10-foot line to seal the set for UAlbany 25-23 and go up 2-0 in the match.

Down 4-2 early in the second, UAlbany went on a 3-0 run off Otero’s serving for a 5-4 lead.  The Seawolves used two blocks to start a run, then added four kills.  Fletcher kept serving well as the run kept building, putting the home team up 14-6.  UAlbany stopped the run and starting going back and forth with Stony Brook on points.  Leindecker got two kills in a row to pull UAlbany within six at 18-12, but the Great Danes did not get closer.  A late 6-0 SBU run, with three Fletcher kills, essentially sealed the set.  Stony Brook got set three 25-14 as UAlbany held the match lead 2-1.
An early 3-0 run put UAlbany ahead 3-1 in the fourth game.  At 5-4, kills from Lamb, Jungsten and Leindecker in succession put UAlbany’s advantage to 8-4.  SBU countered with six-straight, including three Fletcher kills in a row, to lead 10-8, leading UAlbany to call a timeout.  With kills from Hurley, UAlbany pulled to within one a couple of times, but SBU put its lead to 15-12 following a Nicole Vogel ace.  Down 19-15, UAlbany called a timeout to regroup.  The Great Danes pounced with a Leindecker kill, a Hurley kill, an SBU attack error and a Leindecker ace off the libero, tying the set 19-19 and leading to a Stony Brook timeout.   SBU retook the lead with kills from Fletcher and McFadden.  UAlbany kept attacking with kills from Hurley and Dolan in exchanges, then a Lamb-Dolan combo block tied the set again at 23-23.  The next point, Dolan blocked a hard attack from Brook to set up match point.  SBU defended and got its own chance, at 25-24.  A Leindecker kill tied it up, but a Fletcher kill and block gave the set to Stony Brook 27-25 to send the contest into a tiebreaker.

Following a Fletcher kill, Hurley notched a kill to send Hansen to serve.  UAlbany protected against three attacks, blocking two to Stony Brook’s floor.  A Dolan kill and a Fletcher error capped the run at 6-0 for a 6-1 UAlbany lead.  SBU got two kills, then Leindecker earned a kill to spark a 3-0 run for a 9-3 UAlbany advantage.  Leindecker kept notching kills as UAlbany held the lead.  SBU used a McFadden kill and two UAlbany errors to pull within two at 11-9.  Engstrom called a timeout: the next three points resulted in Stony Brook errors as the UAlbany defense did not allow the ball to hit the floor on many chances.  The fourth was the same as McFadden tipped a ball, seeing Dolan and Hurley block it down for the 15-9 set five win and 3-2 match victory for UAlbany.

UAlbany returns home for one match next weekend, taking on UMass Lowell on Sunday, October 18^th at 2 p.m. at the University Gym.