Sophomore right side hitter Ali Loynachan has the ability to be one of the top hitters in the conference this season.

The Volleyball team was recently ranked third in the conference in the preseason coaches poll, and looks to be in their best position yet to win their first ever America East Conference crown.

Reigning champion Binghamton University was picked to repeat as champions with five first place votes and 33 points while University at Albany received one first place vote and 31 points for second place. But one coach does thing UMBC has what it takes to finally threw, as their 24 points came with the help of one first place vote.

UMBC will be without several key players, including three of their top kills leaders: Alyssa Lang (234), Ashley Oscars (203), and Naomi Bush (169); assists leader: Kira Giles (633); and top four leaders in digs: Pam Jarrett (340), Lang (197), Oscars (181), Giles (171).

But that does not mean they team is without talented players. It just means new players, who may be just as if not more talented, can get their chance to step in.

With nine freshman and two sophomores and just two juniors and two seniors, the team will be young. With so much youth it will be key to seniors Sabrina Hoeks and Bianca Sande to hold things together. Hoeks is coming off her second season ending ACL tare in as many years but should still have plenty left to be a major factor on the team. She led the team with 29 aces last season (0.43 per match) and had 101 kills and was second on the team with 45 total blocks. Sande has been used sparingly in her career mostly in situations to break opponents serves, but she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the game.

With Oscars, Lang, and Bush all gone, it is time for sophomore Ali Loynachan to take the reigns as the team’s full time outside hitter. Last year injuries kept her out of seven matches, but she still ranked fourth on the team in kills (138, 2.12 per set) and third in blocks (40). If she stays healthy this season is would not be hard to imagine her getting well over the 200 kill mark, with the possibility of topping the 250 kill plateau.

Hoeks and Sande could both be hitting on the opposite side of Loynachan, but other options are freshmen Ali Goc and Hallie Carter. Goc is one of the many Canadian players that coach Ian Blanchard has pulled in during his tenure, and she is a very good and very established one. She was named the winner of the 2010 Evelyn Holick Award, which is Ontario’s top honor, and has won five straight Canadian Indoor Volleyball National Championship (2005-09), as well as six straight indoor Volleyball Ontatio Championships (2005-10). Carter, a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., was an All-Sunset League selection in 2009-10 and her high school’s Most Valuable Players during her senior season. Emily Vandergrift, who led Loudoun Country High School of Leesburgh, Va. to back-to-back Championships, is another option in a seemingly deep ground.

Locking down a spot in the middle will once again be Iman Kennedy, who has improved greatly in her first two seasons and should be able to improve her team high 77 blocks and 190 kills, which ranked third on the team.

Backing up Kennedy will be 6’1″ redshirt freshman Katie Kelly, 6’2″ freshman Emily Witsaman, who helped lead her club team, Cleveland Volleyball Company, to the 17-National Division of the 2009 USA Junior Olympic Girls’ Volleyball Championship, and Robbin Lee, a Maryland native who was named to the Montgomery County’s All-Star Senior Team in 2009.

Setting up everybody up front will be none other than junior Allie Spaay, who has split time and challenged Giles for a starting role in each of her first two seasons. For a second straight season Spaay finished seconds on the team in assists with 303, 6.31 per set. She also played solid defense with 106 digs, which ranked fifth on the team.

Splitting time with Spaay will be Mallory McIntyre, who was named one of Manitoba’s Top 10 volleyball players of 2010 by the Winnipeg Sun, and Rebecca Garringues, who led Rancho Valley Volleyball Club to the finals of the 2010 Junior National Championships Open Division.

The big question will be who can replace Jarrett as the team’s libero, or defensive specialist. Jarrett had a stellar career at UMBC and locked down that position for four years, ending in a senior year where she led the team with 340 digs and had 28 aces, which was second on the team.

While Hoeks could possibly play libero, the only two true defensive specialists on the team are sophomore Brighid Casey and freshman Kat Lincalis. Neither are known commodities, but Casey did appear in 17 matches last season, recording 21 digs and six aces. Lincalis is a local prospect from Halethorpe that attended Towson High School and was an All-Metro First Team pick in 2009 by the Baltimore Sun.

The bottom line is the team will be young, but full of talent. If Hoeks and Sande can hold them together in their final seasons, they have the ability to win UMBC’s first ever AEC Championship, but if the growing pains are too rough they should be in great position to win in the near future.

They recorded 21 attack errors, three service errors, and three blocking errors and hit -.034.

All-freshman team right side hitter Ali Loynachan led the team with six kills while sophomore middle blocker Iman Kennedy was second on the team with five kills, a team high six blocks, and team high .143 hitting percentage. Rookie of the Year Naomi Bush recorded three kills while second team all conference player Alyssa Lang recorded two kills with 11 digs. Sarah Joy and Ashley Oscars each recorded one kills in the game.

Kira Giles led the team with 15 assists.

With their season at a close, UMBC finished the year with a 13-13 record and will graduate four players: Pam Jarrett, Helen Smith, Oscars, and Giles.

They made it four with a sweep of the Retrievers 25-15, 25-21, 25-17.

Alyssa Lang led all hitters with 14 kills with 11 digs to go with it. Ashley Oscars and Ali Loynachan each had six kills while Kira Giles had 22 assists.

With the loss the team falls to the fourth seed in the conference tournament and will take on host Albany this weekend.

Binghamton won all three sets, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20, and didn’t even let UMBC get close in the end.

Alyssa Lang recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs, but no other Retriever recorded over five kills in the match. Three of them, Ashley Oscars, Iman Kennedy, and Ali Loynachan did record five, but had a combined 10 errors on the day.

Alyssa Lang led UMBC with 14 kills and added 11 digs while Naomi Bush had 13 kills. Ashley Oscars came one kill away from a double-double with nine kills and 11 digs. Kira Giles had a double-double with 23 assists and 14 digs while Allie Spaay had 24 assists and Pam Jarrett had 23 digs. Iman Kenned had seven kills with three blocks while Ali Loynachan had eight kills. The other two points came from Sarah Joy, who also led the team with four blocks.

With the team now at 5-3 in the conference they are tied with Stony Brook for second place as they split the series with them. they have just two regular season games left including a tough home game tomorrow against Binghamton and then on the road against New Hampshire next week to conclude the regular season.

Alyssa Lang was second on the team with seven kills and Ashley Oscars has six, which is what is to be expected from those two night in and night out anymore, but Iman Kennedy stepped up for another big game with five kills while hitting .400.

Allie Spaay has come on strong lately and recorded 21 assists with six digs while Kira Giles had nine kills and five digs.

Sarah Joy had a tremendous game with five blocks.

The Retrievers kept the match very close and even pushed the second set into extra points (25-20, 26-24, 25-21), but they couldn’t get over the hump in any set.

Ashley Oscars lead the team with 12 kills and 11 digs for the double double, while Alyssa Lang came one kill away from a doble as she also had 10 digs.

Allie Spaay and Kira Giles split the assists, 16-16.

The Retrievers now have three straight home games before concluding the season on the road and are still in position to win the conference and get home court advantage.

One good thing though was Ali Loynachan made her comeback and she was second on the eam with five kills.

Senior outside hitter Ashley Oscars lead UMBC with six kills and 13 digs.

Kira Giles recorded a double-double with 12 assists and 10 digs while Pam Jarrett added 12 digs.

But the Retrievers could not get anything going as they lost all three sets in the game (25-12, 25-19, 25-11).

UMBC is not 11-7 and 3-0 in America East play.

A big reason for the success of the team lately has been Alyssa Lang. She had another phenomenal game with 21 kills and 15 digs in the match for her third straight double-double, and fifth of the season.

Alyssa Lang has been been spectacular for the Retrievers for the past three matches.

Ashley Oscars has also been brilliant since coming back. She recorded 15 kills with 13 digs for her second straight double-double.

But making it a trio of great performances was Sabrina Hoeks. She recorded 10 kills with just 1 errors with a .692 hitting percentage. She had two service aces and two assisted blocks.

Sabrina Hoeks lead the team with a .692 hitting percentage.

Both setters, Allie Spaay and Kira Giles, recorded double-doubles as well. Spaay led the team with 35 assists with 17 digs and Giles recorded 15 assists with 14 digs.

Senior Pam Jarrett recorded a team high 18 kills and Sophomore Iman Kennedy recorded eight kills with a team high five blocks.