As you probably know in 2008 I started this website as a free wordpress blog. I did it for many reasons, to get more experience writing and to give UMBC athletics more coverage that I was not able to provide otherwise. This website has taken up most of my free time every since; instead of going out to clubs or parties with my fellow college classmates, I was spending my weekends at games writing up game stories and I would do it all over again if I had the choice.

Sports Journalism and UMBC athletics are two things I think about all the time, they’ve been what have consumed my life for the past four years; they are the things I enjoy and I never made or expected to make any money off the site either. The two ads I had on here for a little while didn’t even fully cover my costs.

The thing that surprised me though was how big this website got; especially considering UMBC barely has over 10,000 undergraduate students. But you guys flocked to this website and I got more views every single week, prompting me to make a big move by buying an official domain name, making it a much more interesting looking website and doing much more interesting things to give more coverage.

Every month this website was up the views increased and it’s actually a bit disappointing I have to end it now after November had over 25-percent more views that I ever had in a give month. But it’s time for me to move on, invest my time in other things. After my graduation coming in December, where I will be crossing the podium with a triple major in American Studies, English and Media and Communications Studies, I’m not going to be able to invest as much time as I would like to in this website as I’m going to be searching for that career in sports journalism and I refuse to do something I don’t think will be done well. So instead of just having this website dwindle down to barely giving sports coverage I think its best that I end on a high note, right now.

So once again everybody, I want to thank you all. I want to thank ever single person who ever stumbled upon my website and read something and I especially want to thank those diehard followers I had, you were the real reason I continued this website for as long as I did. I’ll still be around so you’ll probably still see me and I hope you all keep following my work throughout the years (just google my name you’ll find it), it’s been a blast. Go Retrievers!

Corey Johns

In the match UMBC and Albany were tied 21 times and changed lead seven times as both teams scored at least 20 points in each set. But neither team had a particularly effective night offensively. UMBC was outhit .181-.140 after totaling 28 errors in the match.

The 2011 Rookie of the Year, Dalton Tolliver, led UMBC with 13 kills while sophomore Emily Vandegrift ended the game with nine kills and nine digs. Senior Allie Spaay saw her career come to an end with her 15th double-double of the season with 30 assists and 13 digs while fellow senior Iman Kennedy had seven kills.

UMBC took a 9-7 lead in the first set but a 5-1 run by Albany reversed things, giving them the two point lead. UMBC was able to tie it with a small 3-1 spurt but the Great Danes scored nine of the next 11 points as the Retrievers fell behind 22-15. A 7-1 run got UMBC back in the middle of things, making it 23-22, but Albany closed the set out for the set victory.

In the second set UMBC was able to pull away out to a 21-16 lead midway through but could not close it out. UMBC nearly tied the match with they were one point away from a set victory when the score was 24-20 but Albany scored the final six-straight points to end the set, giving them all of the momentum.

That momentum proved to be a major deal in the third set. Albany jumped out to a 7-3 lead and never looked back. UMBC did pull within three of their opponents but Albany scored three-straight to take a 15-9 lead. UMBC scored 11 of the next 19 points to get it back to 23-20 but Albany finished the match with two more points.

UMBC finishes the 2012 season with a 16-12 record.

Dalton Tolliver is the fifth Retriever since 2005 to be named the America East Rookie of the Year.

Freshman hitter Dalton Tolliver has been named the 2011 America East Volleyball Rookie of the Year and was named to the All-Conference Second Team and All-Rookie squad. Fellow hitter Hannah Schmidt joined Tolliver on the All-Rookie team.

After a somewhat slow start to the season Tolliver turned things on in conference play as she helped lead the Retrievers to a third-straight appearance in the America East conference tournament. During conference play Tolliver hit .362, which ranked second in the America East. She was named Rookie of the Week twice this year and Player of the Week a week ago after great performances against New Hampshire and Hartford. Tolliver ranked second on the team with 222 kills and hit .288 with 71 block assists, 77 total blocks and 17 aces.

Tolliver is the fifth Retriever since 2005 to win the award.

Schmidt had a fantastic start to the 2011 campaign and was a two-time Rookie of the Week. She led UMBC with 229 kills, averaging 2.97 kills per set. She hit .255 with 13 aces, 79 digs, and 33 total blocks.

Photo: UMBC Athletic Communications

Needing a victory to get into the America East Conference tournament to extend her collegiate career senior setter Allie Spaay recorded a career-high 67 assists and had 10 digs for her 14th double-double of the season while also recording two aces as UMBC topped the Providence Friars in five sets, 24-26, 25-19, 25-27, 25-20, 15-4. Prior to this season Spaay had recorded 13 career double-doubles but more than doubled that total this season with 14. Spaay leads UMBC with 942 assists, 72 blocks and 26 aces this season. She also ranks third on the team with 264 digs.

Iman Kennedy recorded a career-high 20 kills as the Retrievers clinched a spot in their third-straight conference tournament.

Needing a victory in the final regular season games of their career Iman Kennedy and Allie Spaay set career-highs to lead the Retrievers to a five-set victory over Providence to clinch a spot in the America East conference tournament. Kennedy led UMBC with a career-high 21 kills while Spaay had a career-high 67 assists to go with 10 digs for her 14th double-double of the season, topping her three-year total of 13 from 2008-2010.

UMBC fell behind early and trailed early in the fourth-set while the team was already down 2-1, but the team rallied back, won the final two sets, and clinched the fourth-seed in the conference tournament next weekend at Albany.

The Retrievers fell behind 9-4 in the first set but battled back and eventually took a one point lead to go up 21-20 but the Friars responded with three-straight points to take a 23-21 lead. UMBC was able to tie the match and swapped points with Providence again to make it 24-24 but the Friars recorded the final two points in the extended set for the 26-24 lead.

Providence took the first point in the second set, as they did in the first four, but UMBC responded much faster this time, going on a 16-7 run after it. Providence did cut UMBC’s lead to four on three difference occasions, at 21-17, 22-18, and 23-19, but UMBC picked up the last two points to even the sets at one a piece.

UMBC started well in the third set at well, taking an 8-5 lead but Providence went outscored the Retrievers 13-7 to take a 19-15 lead. Ali Loynachan was able to spark a four-point run that ended with back-to-back kills by Hannah Schmidt to tie the set at 19. Then, UMBC battled to get a 25-24 lead but three-straight kills for the Friars handed them the extended third set.

That’s when UMBC just clicked. After Providence scored the first point UMBC went on a 10-3 run and never looked back. When Providence got within four at 13-9, UMBC went on a three-point run. When Providence got within three at 16-13, UMBC went on a 5-1 run, and when Providence made it 23-20, UMBC closed it out for the 25-20 set victory.

They carried it on from there too, dominating the fifth set, allowing Providence only four points before scoring the final six to pick up the 15-4 victory, giving them their fourth-straight victory, improving their record to 16-11 overall and 6-6 in conference play, enough for a berth in the post season tournament.

Helping the seniors, freshmen Dalton Tolliver and Schmidt recorded 18 and 13 kills, respectively while sophomore Emily Vandegrift had 18 kills. Fellow sophomores Ali Gov and Hallie Carter led UMBC with 19 and 17 digs, respectively. Loynachan had seven kills and nine digs as well as the Retrievers outhit the Friar .330 – .255 and outdug them 68-66.

UMBC will play host Albany in the first round of the conference tournament on November 18.

Photo: UMBC Athletic Communications

Desperately needing to get wins down the stretch to keep a chance at the America East conference tournament alive, the volleyball team picked up two crutial victories over New Hampshire and Hartford to move up to fourth place in the conference. While the entire team seemed to click in the two outings it was freshman Dalton Tolliver who dominated the competition both times out. In two matches Tolliver recorded 30 kills and led the team in hitting both times out. Against New Hampshire, which at the time was the second ranked team in the conference, Tolliver led the Retrievers with 13 kills and hit .611. Two days later, on a very emotional senior day against the Hartford Hawks, who were very desperate for a win as well, she led UMBC with 17 kills and hit .389.

Iman Kennedy led UMBC with six blocks and had 12 kills in her final match at UMBC.

In their final game at the RAC arena Iman Kennedy and Allie Spaay helped led the Retrievers to a 3-1 victory over Hartford, keeping the team very much alive for the America East tournament. Spaay recorded her 13th double-double of the season with 48 assists and 13 digs while Kennedy led the team with six blocks with 12 kills.

The home rematch against the Hartford Hawks started off far too familiar as the scores of the first three sets were exactly the same as they were in Hartford. UMBC won the first set 25-18, lost the second set 25-17, but came back to regain the lead 25-19. Making things most odd, the fourth set also has the same 25-23 score but this time the Retrievers got the victory, picking up their third-straight victory to improve their conference record to 5-6, moving them into sole possession of fourth-place in the conference standings.

“That’s probably the biggest gut check we’ve had so far this season,” head coach Ian Blanchard said. “We had to win that match in order to give ourselves a chance to stay in contention for the playoffs. We did a good job of taking care of business. Tonight I thought we did a good job maintaining our composure down the stretch against the most crucial part of the match. I’m very proud of the effort. They fought very hard tonight and gave a heck of an effort today and were awarded with a win.”

UMBC got off to a nice start in the match, picking up the first four points in the first set. UMBC eventually built up an 11-7 lead before Hartford called a time out. Out of the stoppage the Hawks went on a 5-3 run, forcing Blanchard to call a time out, which resulted in an 11-6 run for the first set victory.

Freshman Dalton Tolliver, who led UMBC with 17 kills in the match, and Ali Loynachan, who finished with 11 kills, each had five in the first set. Spaay nearly had a double-double with 13 assists and six digs in the first set.

Hartford got revenge in the second set, barely allowing UMBC to get any momentum for getting much of a lead on the rare occasion they had one, but the Retrievers scored 15 of the first 24 points in the third set before they went on to take the 2-1 lead.

UMBC was caught in a very close fourth set but Kennedy had five kills while Spaay had 13 assists to pace the Retrievers to the final set victory.

“I don’t think I’ve ever won a senior day match. I think that’s my first win in seven years,” Blanchard said. “There are a lot of emotions going on but I thought Allie and Iman did a good job of staying level headed.”

UMBC outhit Hartford .222 – .156, outdug them 94-89, and outblocked them 11-8. Loynchan joined Spaay with a double-double after recording a team-high 24 digs with 11 kills while Ali Goc had 20 digs in the match as the libero.

But as much as UMBC needed a victory and as much of a team-effort they had for the victory, the day belonged to Kennedy and Spaay, who were both honored before the match in a senior ceremony.

“I didn’t think it was coming until it happened,” Spaay said. “I wasn’t prepared for how emotional it was going to be. It was hard because it’s an emotional beginning and then you have to play and it’s emotional at the end. It’s sad but it’s bittersweet that it’s my last home game.”

Kennedy, who like Spaay is not a native of Maryland, added: “It means a lot because my family doesn’t get a lot of chances to see me play and it’s really good when it’s on a night that the team played well and we got a win. It feels really good.”

UMBC’s final game of the regular season will take place next Sunday at 1:00 p.m. when they travel to Providence. A win will guarantee the Retrievers a spot in the conference tournament as they hold tie breakers over both New Hampshire and Binghamton.

Joe Glos was a freshman that had a much bigger role than planned this season. At least he got valuable experience out of it.

A cold night had an even colder end to the men’s soccer team as they lost to Hartford in the quarterfinals of the America East tournament, 1-0, ending the Retrievers’ once promising season with a 7-8-3 record, just their fourth-losing season in the last 20 years.

After starting conference play with four-straight victories, improving the team’s record to 7-3-3, UMBC looked to be back on track for a second-straight trip to the NCAA tournament but injuries forced inexperienced players to see the field, which led to undisciplined play, and things just kept getting worse as UMBC lost their final five games of the year.

With so many injuries keeping key veterans out of the game, including usual starters Andy Streilein and Travis Dennis, Head Coach Pete Caringi Jr. was forced to rely on his young players. Three of his four bench players were freshman and two more started the game.

“What we really try to do is not make excuses for nothing so it’s not something we talk about but there are a lot of guys that are injured that played and I think it took it’s toll on the team,” Caringi Jr. said. “We limped into the last two weeks and that was a team [Hartford] that got on a roll the last couple of weeks.”

Some injured players that Caringi Jr. highlighted were Streilein and Sean Rothe, Dan Louisignau, and Pete Caringi III; the latter three all played but with limited practice time and not at full health.

“We went into this season thinking we were a really veteran team but at the end of the day how many freshman did we play?” Caringi said. “I think at one point we had five freshman on the field and Zach Wenger started today as a freshman that hasn’t really played all year. That deep, strong, veteran team that we had last year, that wasn’t the case this year.”

With that said though, UMBC certainly had chances to win the game. Louisignau, despite playing hurt, kept the Retrievers in the game with five saves and for the most part the back line played very well, except on one play where they made a mistake and Anthony Santaga made them pay with what would be the game-winning goal in the 67th minute.

The problem was the offense, as has been the case pretty much all season. Hartford’s goalkeeper Luke Citriniti made seven saves but UMBC never really challenged him with a great shot. Andrew Bulls led UMBC with five, four of which were on goal, but two were direct kicks after penalties while the other two were directly at Citriniti.

Kingsley Onwuka and Daniel Welsh both also had great scoring opportunities but both hesitated and took too long before pulling the trigger on the shot, allowing Hartford’s defense to get in position to prevent the shots.

“We don’t have many pure goal scorers and I think Petey has a history of scoring, Bulls has a history of scoring and after that not many players have that,” Caringi Jr. said. “Today I watched people double team them. You just need to get some players in here next year that can put the ball in the net. The more goal scorers you have the better chance you have at winning the championship.”

Though UMBC’s season ends on a very sour note and while it will go down as only the fourth losing season in Caringi Jr.’s 21-year tenure as UMBC’s coach, it still does not seem like it was a losing season. Outside the last few games UMBC was in every one they stepped on the field for, took the No. 1 team in the nation to the brink, and played a very tough schedule.

“The record was a losing record and personally that was very disturbing to me but this was a team that played a very difficult schedule, probably the toughest schedule we’re played here at UMBC,” Caringi Jr. said. “We’ve had some highlights, we’ve had some big crowds, we’ve has some big games.”

Caringi Jr. did take one consolation out of it though, his young players that were forced to take on big roles this year will be much better for it next season.

“Right now I’m extremely disappointed but I’m proud of how they continued to fight; that’s one thing that says a lot about our program,” he said. “It’s easy to quit, especially in the last couple of weeks when you go through a lot of different stages of frustration. The philosophy has always been that when one guy gets hurt somebody has to step up. In this case there was a lot of freshman that had to step up. The good thing is they got experience today and the last couple of weeks. The bad thing is we took it on the chin the last couple of weeks and it’s not how we expected the season to end.

Ali Loynachan had eight kills in the matcch and led UMBC with 11 digs.

It was about as big of a win as they could come when the women’s soccer team beat the second-ranked New Hampshire Wildcats in three sets to improve to 4-6, keeping them very alive for a spot in the America East tournament.

UMBC beat New Hampshire 26-24, 25-19, 25-20 as they outhit them .398 0 .241 and outblocked then, 5-2.

Freshman Dalton Tolliver led UMBC with 13 kills while hitting a team-best .611. Senior Iman Kennedy and junior Ali Loynachan both had eight kills in the match. Kennedy hit .571 and led the team with four blocks while Loynachan hit .400 and led the team with 11 digs. Senior Allie Spaay had 34 of the team’s 39 kills.

The Retrievers outhit New Hampshire .343 – .273 in the first set. UMBC got off to a rough start, falling down behind 9-4 but a 12-5 run gave the Retrievers a 16-14 lead. From that point on the lead changed two more times and there were eight ties.

In the second set UMBC dominated the Wildcats, outhitting them .571 – .200 in their six-point set victory. Once again though, UNH took a big early lead, 7-2, but UMBC came back and battled back to take a 13-12 lead before losing it out with 12 of the last 19 point.

UMBC outhit UNH again in the third set, .280 – .241, but this time they didn’t have to come from far behind to get it. UMBC jumped out to a 5-3 lead and built it into a 15-10 lead after a 5-1 point run. New Hampshire’s coach called a time out to get the wildcats back on track and they scored four-straight points but UMBC did not give up the lead as they picked up their fourth conference victory of the season.

Daniel Welsh was not available for the last three and a half conference games but he'll be back to help lead the Retrievers' dominant defense in the America East tournament.

Three weeks ago the UMBC men’s soccer team was sitting atop the America East standings with a perfect 4-0 record after three-straight conference shutouts, four-straight overall. But the Retrievers stumbled at the end of the season, dropping their final four games.

Two weeks ago the team’s hope of a perfect conference record came to stunning end when they got handled by Hartford on the road, 3-1. In that game an undisciplined team that went into the game a little too confident and comfortable lost two players by the 52nd minute to card violations and a third before the end of the game.

In their last three games, starting with Hartford, the team that allowed only 11 goals in their first 13 games, shutting out seven opponents, allowed 10 goals, dropping them to 4-3 in conference play and down to the fourth-seed in the tournament.

Well what that means is UMBC gets a chance at revenge against Hartford. This Saturday UMBC will be hosting the fifth-seeded Hawks in the quarterfinals of the America East tournament as they try to get to their third-straight conference championship game and defend their America East crown.

It almost seems like if there is any team in the tournament with enough talent to make a great run at the end of the season it is UMBC. Despite finishing fourth in the standings UMBC lead all teams with four representatives on the All-Conference first-team: Dan Louisignau, Andrew Bulls, Pete Caringi III, and Liam Paddock.

Louisignau has just a fantastic season, shutting out seven teams and saving 79.2 percent of the shots he’s been faced with, as he was named the America East Conference’s Goalkeeper of the Year.

Meanwhile, Bulls became just the second Retriever to earn three first-team all-America East conference honors since Marcus Gross did it from 2003-2005. The Preseason All-American led the Retrievers with five goals this season to go with two assists as he finished the regular season second on the team in points with 12. While Bulls did struggle to hit his stride and put the ball in the back of the net early in the year, once conference play hit Bulls was back to his old self, proving just how dominate of a score he can be with four of his goals coming against conference opponents.

Caringi III led the Retrievers with 13 points and five assists while also scoring four goals in his sophomore campaign while Paddock was a major part of the team’s dominant defense as he started all 16 games he was eligible to play at center back.

But the team has more than just those four guys to lean on. Daniel Welsh, a second team all-conference player, could have been the defensive player of the year had he not missed four games this season for card suspensions, and three and a half conference games.

One of the major reasons UMBC struggled in their final three games, where they were outscored 10-2, was because Welsh was not on the back line next to Paddock. The two have formed one of the best tandems of center backs maybe in the country and really forced guys to take difficult shots from outside, and that’s where they usually met either Vince Savarese or Andy Streilein, both of whom probably should have been all-conference honorees but continually get overlooked. Both players are incredibly skilled two-way players. Unfortunately, after suffering a head injury against Vermont that sent him to the hospital, Streilein, who moved up to midfield later in the year, will not be available for the Retrievers, but Savarese, who head coach Pete Caringi Jr. describes as an “old school Baltimore” kind of a player will be, as is the incredibly athletic Travis Dennis, who transferred from ACC power Clemson a few years ago.

But even with loads of talent they won’t just walk over Hartford. The Hawks not only beat UMBC, but they have won their last three games, also including a 3-1 victory over Stony Brook, which beat UMBC 3-0.

David Bernhardsson leads the Hawks with five goals and 15 points and tied for the team lead with five assists as he was named to the America East’s All-Conference first team. Meanwhile, defensive midfieler Patrick Boucher, who has a goal and three assists, was a member of the All-Conference second team. Connor Yeaney (three goals) and Atobra Ampadu (three goals, one assists) were both all-rookie team selections. Anthony Santaga was not named to an all-conference team but is still very dangerous and finished the year with four goals and five assists

UMBC hosts the Hawks on the Bermuda grass at Elite Tournaments Field at Retriever Soccer Park at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5.