UMBC Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson women's volleyball team fought back to earn a 3-2 win over the UMBC Retrievers Saturday in Baltimore, MD, in their final match of the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament. 

The Knights, who dropped an earlier Saturday match to Youngstown State by a 3-0 margin, but beat Norfolk State on Friday, went 2-1 at the tournament to improve their overall record to 7-3. FDU and UMBC finished with matching 2-1 records, but the Knights won the head-to-head competition. 

Against UMBC, the Knights fell 25-15 in the first set, but came alive with 25-23 and 25-16 wins in the following two sets. After the Retrievers evened the score at 2-2 with a 25-18 fourth set advantage, FDU led the entire fifth frame to pick up a 15-11 win. 

The Knights got key performances from Chelsea Braga (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach ), who tied for a team-high with 14 kills, Kelsey Semler (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) and her 21 digs and Meaghan Wheeler (Chatsworth, CA/Chaminade College Prep), who recorded 11 kills and 21 digs. 

With a number of good showings, the play of Sarah Berkland (Newton, MA/Newton North) caught the attention of Head Coach Stacey Recanati. 

“What an exciting match,” Recanati said. “The team played hard as a cohesive unit for the entire match. Berkland dominated at the net, hitting a .444 with one block solo and five block assists.”

Berkland's effort did not go unnoticed as she was named tournament MVP. FDU's Wheeler also picked up All-Tournament accolades over the weekend. 

As a team, the Knights had 13 total blocks to UMBC's 9.5. 

On offense, Sarah Willey (Abingdon, MD/Bel Air) and Taylor Roland-Buohl (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) split the setting duty with Willey recording 28 assists, while Roland-Buohl had 19. 

In their earlier match against Youngstown State, the Knights had 39 kills, seven fewer than their average of a little more than 47 per contest entering the day. 

The Penguins seized control of the match with a 25-22 win in the first set and a 25-21 victory in game two. The Knights had a chance to extend the match with the score tied at 24-24 in the third set, but Youngstown State scored the last two points to claim the 26-24 win. 

Wheeler piled up a match-high 13 kills for the Knights, while Willey chipped in with a 

team-best 18 assists. 

The Penguins were paced by Missy Hundelt's 10 kills and Casey D'Ambrose's 30 assists. 

The Knights will return to the Garden State to play the NJIT Highlanders in Newark, NJ, on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m.