By Chiristian Hince
The Great Danes swept an ailing Highlanders team Friday night, moving to 10-13 overall and 5-3 in the America East. The visiting NJIT squad fell to 2-21 overall and 0-9 in the conference.
UAlbany started on fire, building an early 7-1 with two scoring runs. The two teams traded a few exchanges before a four-point Highlander made the score a much closer 13-11. The Danes pulled away by a few points later, turning an 8-2 run into a 25-15 victory.
NJIT opened the second with a 2-1 lead, which was shortly erased by eight straight UAlbany points, all served by Lilou Stegeman. The Highlanders still kept it close much of the way, drawing within one point three more times. Then trailing 19-17, NJIT was outscored 6-1 for another lopsided Danes victory, 25-18.
The Highlanders scored the third set’s first point for their second and last lead of the night, only for UAlbany to jump out 7-2. A later six-point streak extended this advantage to 19-8, and the Danes soon scored four straight to end the night with a 25-15 win.
“I’m very proud of our defensive effort tonight,” said Head Coach Josh Pickard. “We applied service pressure and defended well,”
Defensive high marks for the Danes included them outhitting NJIT .270-.000, Charlotte Macken collecting 14 digs, and Lilou Stegemen leading in blocks (six) for the fifth straight game since returning from injury.
On offense, Regan Wright and Danielle Tedesco led with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Malea Stanton stood in the setter’s spotlight with 37 assists.
UAlbany continues at home on Halloween against New Hampshire, a possible revenge game against a team that beat them in five sets earlier this month.
