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.

Lets break down the 2009-2010 athletic season: one championship (Swimming and Diving), four second place finished (Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Soccer, Men’s Tennis, and Women’s Swimming and Diving), and a bevy of all-conference players. It is really easy to say it was a down season for UMBC, but that is just because the marquee sports struggled. Men’s Lacrosse took a step back after being one of the most dominating teams in the conference for several years; men’s Basketball went from back-to-back finals appearances to just a 4-26 record; women’s Basketball took nationally ranked Virginia to the brink in the season opener but failed to move up from where they were last year despite so much returning talent; baseball had their second-straight nine win season; women’s soccer finished in last place again, and softball wasted a hot start to the season and missed the conference tournament. But there are plenty of other sports that had a lot of success. Men’s Soccer was picked to finished dead last this season, but proved to have one of the most dominating offenses in the nation, led by the N.C.A.A.’s two top scorers and finished in the America East Conference finals. Women’s lacrosse finally got into the AEC tournament, but upset the goliath University at Albany in the semi-finals and lost by just one to Boston University in the finals. Swimming and Diving? Well they just proved to be absolutely dominating once again. The men’ won their 13th straight league championship while the women finished right near the top again. Men’s tennis proved to be one of the most consistent teams at UMBC and made a trip back to the AEC finals, coming up just short of a championship, but showed significant improvement. Track and Field also had some absolutely dominating athletes across the board. Victor Gilreath and Keith Onto were untouchable in their events, while Sara Parkinson was an all-conference player in all three season. A lot of good things happened for UMBC this year, and they set the school up for a phenomenal year in 2010-2011. So without further adieu, here are the yearly UMBC Sports Blog Awards for the 2009-2010 athletic year:

Top Coach

Pete Caringi, Men’s Soccer

While Chad Cradock brought home UMBC’s only championship, it’s hard not to give the award to Caringi. His team was picked to finish in eighth place in an eight team conference with 14 freshmen and sophomores, an unproven goalie, and only one player returning with more than three goals in 2008. But right away, the Caringi-lead team showed that it really was a new season. The team started 9-0, were nationally ranked during the season, and got to the finals for the first time in nine years, and finished with 14 wins, the most since the 2000 season.

Male Freshman of the Year

Phil Saunders, Men’s Soccer

This ear the soccer team was about a very high scoring offense, but Phil Saunders was still phenomenal in goal. First, goalie very well may the toughest position on a soccer field. He not only has to stop a ball being hit at him at 70 m.p.h., but he also has to set up everybody’s position on the field. He’s the leader of the team, the quarterback. But Saunders excelled at the position. He shut out six teams and allowed an average of just one goal per game.

Female Freshman of the Year

Jamie Fahey, Women’s Lacrosse

The list of accomplishments and awards for Jamie Fahey this year is just remarkable. After her freshman season Fahey was honored with and All-Rookie selection, Rookie of the Year, Second team All-AEC, Mid-Atlantic Second Team honors by the Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Association, and All-Rookie team honors by womenslacrosse.com. While Fahey was a defender, her speed and ball handling ability made her a threat to score every time she touched the ball. She is certainly one of the cornerstones of the team that will contend for a championship next year.

Best Male Performance

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Keith Onto, Men’s Track and Field, 7,239 points in Decathlon at AEC Championships

Winning one event is a big feat, but winning six events in order to do that is just amazing. Keith Onto broke an AEC Championship record with 7,239 points in the heptathlon as he won the 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, long jump, high jump, javelin, and Discus, while coming in second in the 100-meter dash and shot put, and third in the 1,500-meter run and pole vault. Onto finished with 577 points more than the second place finisher.

Best Female Performance

Carlee Cassidy, Women’s Basketball, Leads the team to a 23-points comeback over Boston University on her senior day

In her final game at RAC arena Carlee Cassidy scored 25 points with nine rebounds and three assists. But 16 of those points came in the second half during a 23-point comeback. UMBC fell into a big hole early to Boston University and trailed by 23 points early in the second half. But Carlee Cassidy got hot after that and led her team to a miraculous comeback, sending her out on top.

Best Moment

Courtesy www.umbcretrievers.com

Men’s Swimming and Diving wins 13th straight league title

After a 12-year period of dominance the men’s swimming and diving team was supposed to finally be overthrown as AEC Champions by a heavily favored Boston U team. Boston U returned every key contributor from the year before while UMBC lost some key swimmers. But as always, people stepped up and the reign of dominance was not ended after a dozen victories. The team came together, guys stepped up, others overachieved, and the team won their 13th straight league title and 7th straight AEC title.

Most Improved Male Athlete

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Camal Pugh, Men’s Track and Field

Good but never great- that was Camal Pugh’s reputation as an athlete on the track and field team for three years. But in his senior year he changed that. Pugh went from a guy who would contribute to his teams total every once in a while to one of the best runners on the team. During the indoor season he won two golds, three silvers, and a spot in the I.C.4.A. Championships. During the outdoor season, he remained the teams top hurdler every time out, and won a gold at the AEC Championship meet, and once again, qualified for the I.C.4.A. Championships.

Most Improved Female Athlete

Erika Braerman, Women’s Lacrosse

Last season Erika Braerman just had to pass the ball inside to the teams big guns. But this year, she was one of them. As a freshman Braerman scored just nine goals and had 11 assists but this year she led the team with 54 points off a team high 22 assists, and 32 goals, which ranked second on the team. Braerman learned her new role fast, and really excelled at it, making her another cornerstone of the women’s lacrosse team’s future success.

Unsung Male Hero

Mike Camardo, Men’s Lacrosse

It is really stunning to see that with everything Mike Camardo has done in his career, he has only been named to the AEC Second-team just two times in his career. He’s never been a first-team player or All-American. But when watching Mike Camardo you can tell he was always the best player on the field for both sides. His job was not to score, or set up the offense. It was to shut down the opposing offense and he did just that. In 13 games Camardo caused 36 turnovers (2.76 per game) and scooped up 54 ground balls (4.15 per game). As a long stick midfielder he was never the spotlight of the team, but he was usually up against the teams top offensive player, and usually won the battle.

Unsung Female Athlete

Kira Giles, Volleyball

When you’re a setter in Volleyball it is only natural for you to get overlooked. The credit always went to Ashley Oscars, Alyssa Lang, and Naomi Bush for smacking the ball down for kills, and for good reason. But Kira Giles was iatrical in all of that happening. As the setter she not only had to lob the ball up for them to hit, but she had to do it in the right place, which she did 633 times during the season. But she also contributed everywhere else on the floor, tying for second with 16 service aces, finished fourth with 171 digs, and fifth with 28 blocks.

Fan’s Choice Male Athlete of the Year

Andrew Bulls, Men’s soccer

Andrew Bulls ran away with the fan vote, more than doubling the second place finisher. With 15 goals and 11 assists, Bulls finished the regular season as the nations leading scorer and earned the AEC Striker of the Year award. It didn’t take long to see that Bulls was headed for a spectacular season. He scored four goals and had five assists after the first week of games and was named Player of the Week by collegesoccernews.com. He started the season with a score in 11 straight games, tying Giuliano Celenza’s streak set in 2000. He became the faster Retriever to score eight goals (six games) in their D-I history and finished second in the nation with 26 points, only behind his teammate Levi Houapeu.

Fan’s Choice Female Athlete of the Year

Fan’s just could not pick between the two seniors as they both finished with the same number of votes.

Carlee Cassidy, Women’s Basketball

Carlee Cassidy is certainly one of UMBC’s greatest scorers and continued to prove it as a senior with 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.3 three-pointers, and a 36.1 FG% and 32.0 3-pt%.

Amanda Fefel, Softball

Fefel is also arguably one of the best players in the softball team’s history. This year she not only dominated at the plate, totaling 53 hits, 13 home runs, 35 RBIs, 101 total bases, a .631 slugging percentage, and 40% on-base percentage. She also dominated on the mound with a team-best 2.64 ERA and four saves. She eventually moved back into the starting rotation as the season wore on. This year she also became UMBC’s all-time leader in home runs as she hit her 41st career home run. She finished the season with her fourth-straight first-team All-AEC selection, and also earned an ECAC all-star selection.

Male Athlete of the Year

Levi Houapeu, Men’s Soccer

When you’re the nation’s leading scorer and ECAC Offensive Player of the Year it’s hard not to be the UMBC Sports Blog Player of the Year. The fact is, Levi Houapeu was just absolutely dominate this year and was a huge reason the team was really successful. His speed and scoring ability opened up the other offensive players, but was also just too good for his opponents to stop. He finished the season with 28 points off 15 goals and 13 assists. He recorded two hat tricks this season, becoming the first to do so since Derek McElligott in 2001. After being injured as a sophomore, he came back and helped lead the team to their first AEC finals since 2000, and put them back on the map for next year.

Female Athlete of the Year

Courtesy www.umbcxctf.wordpress.com

Sara Parkinson, Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field

While she did not win the award for any particular season, it is hard to break her success down into just on because, well, she competed in three seasons. Parkinson was always her team’s top performer and that showed with her awards at the end of those seasons. She received all-conference three times in the 2009-2010 athletic year, which to say the least, is impressive. Being named All-AEC for one sport is a big accomplishment, but to carry that level of success into three seasons is very tough to do.

Welcome to my new location. Right now it is going to look pretty much the same for a little while (though if you’ve noticed there is a lack of pictures it’s because my camera lens broke and I couldn’t take any, but now I have my lens back so there will be a lot of pictures from now on) but at this new location there is a lot more I can do. WordPress limited me with my options but now with my new hosted website and bought domain, I can have a lot more fun with the website. But to break ground on this new location I want to post the fall sports awards. The sports that fall into this category: Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, Volleyball, Men’s Cross Country, and Women’s Cross Country.

Top Coach:

Pete Caringi- Men’s Soccer

I doubt there is any surprise with this pick. Pete Caringi took a team with no seniors and was projected to finish at the bottom of the America East Conference to a 9-0 start with ended in a 14-6 record and a trip to the America East Conference Championship game. The men’s soccer team had the two highest scoring players in the nation and the team was the highest scoring in the nation.

Male Freshman of the Fall

Phil Saunders- Men’s Soccer

Pete Caringi made a gutsy move to take a player who did not even play goalie in high school and start him in goal in the season opener, making him the first freshman to do so since Soren Byskov in 1996. But the gamble definitely paid off. Saunders started every game, recorded 68 saves with a .739 save% as he allowed just 24 goals, and he recorded six shutouts as the team went 14-6.

Female Freshman of the Fall

Naomi Bush- Volleyball

The 2009 America East Volleyball Freshman of the Year joined great company as she followed in the footsteps of Sarah Ball, Ashley Oscars, and Alyssa Lang to win the award. While injuries took it’s effect on the team she stepped up big to help get the team to the post season as she recorded 169 kills, 69 digs, 21 service aces, and had 29 total blocks while hitting .228.

Best Male Performance:

Levi Houapeu’s Hat Trick vs. Albany

With their backs up against the wall in a practically a must win situation to earn a spot in the America East Conference Tournament Levi Houapeu stepped up and recorded his second hat trick of the season and dished off an assist for a seven point effort in a 5-1 win over Albany. With their next two games on the road in hostile environments, UMBC had to take care of business at home against Albany and Houapeu gave them the spark they needed with the first seven point game since Derek McElligott’s in 2001.

Best Female Performance

Suzanne Gabriel Wins The Princeton Invitational

For the first time in UMBC cross country history a woman runner crossed the finish line first. In a time of 23:15.70 Suzanne Gabriel beat the field of 112 and led UMBC to a fifth place finish at the Princeton Invitational.

Best Moment

Men’s Soccer Beating Binghamton, 2-1, On The Road In America East Conference Quarterfinals

After being outscored 7-0 in the final two games of the regular season the men’s soccer team looked to be finished as their previous loss was a 4-0 blowout by Binghamton. But one week later the men’s soccer team bounced back and took a quick lead in the second half. While Binghamton tied the game up soon after, they Retriever scored another goal to eventually win the game. While winning in a tournament is always difficult, making it more difficult was that Binghamton rarely loses at home. Going into the game they had not lost their previous 21 games and were 38-4-16 in the last seven years.

Most Improved Male Athlete

Andrew Madison- Cross Country

There are many worthy players for this award but Andrew Madison led the men’s cross country team in all six meets in which he ran after a season where he finished above third only once in the six meet season.

Most Improved Female Athlete

Iman Kennedy- Volleyball

In just one season Iman Kennedy went from a sparsely used reserve to a full-time starter and in doing so all three major stat categories for her position saw significant raises. She went from 56 kills as a freshman to 190 as a sophomore. She improved her dig total rose by 80% and she more than doubled her total blocks, going from 36 to 77.

Unsung Male Athlete

Sean Rothe- Men’s Soccer

When you see the success of the men’s soccer team you automatically give the credit to Levi Houapeu or Andrew Bulls as they scored 15 goals each, but no player did more on the field that Sean Rothe. Not only was he one of the top midfielders on the team, when the defense hit a string of injuries he moved back, played great defense, and didn’t say a work. Though he only scored on goal his defense, solid ball control, and constant running up and down the field was huge in the Retrievers 14-6 season.

Unsung Female Athlete

Kira Giles- Volleyball

While Ashley Oscars, Alyssa Lang, and Naomi Bush receiver a lot of well due credit for being able to smack the ball down and get the Retriever points, Kira Giles did everything she needed to do to help the Retrievers win. She recorded 633 assists, she was tied for second on the team with 16 service aces, she was fourth on the team in digs with 171, and she got in for 28 blocks, which was tied for fifth on the team.

Fan’s Choice Male Athlete of the Fall

Andrew Bulls- Men’s Soccer

Andrew Bulls ran away with the fan’s choice male athlete of the fall, taking nearly 70% of the votes. The America East Striker of the Year recorded 15 goals and had 11 assists. He was the nation’s highest scorer from week one after five goals and four assists in three games, and remained at that spot for the entire regular season. He started the season with 11 straight games with a point, tying Giuliano Celenza’s streak in 200. He became the fastest Retriever to recorded eight goals (six games) in UMBC Division I history, and he was named the America East Player of the Week twice and National Player of the Week after that five goals four assist week.

Fan’s Choice Female Athlete of the Fall

Mo Van Vlerah- Women’s Soccer

It was a very close race for this award by Mo Van Vlerah edged it out by one vote. While the women’s soccer team struggled this year Van Vlerah did everything she could in goal to get UMBC wins. She finished the season third in the conference with 109 saves and third with 6.41 saves per game. She recorded double-digit saves three times this year with a high of 14 against George Mason, and recorded a shutout in the teams lone conference win over Hartford.

Male Athlete of the Fall

Levi Houapeu- Men’s Soccer

When you lead the nation in points and are named the ECAC Offensive Player of the Year you’re pretty much a shoe-in for the UMBC Male Athlete of the Fall. Houapeu recorded 15 goals and 13 assists this season and was the guy that made the men’s soccer team run. If he had a bad game the team had a bad game and if he had a good game the team won. Twice this season he posted hat-tricks, which was the first time since 2001 when Derek McElligott did it. While he was injured for the majority of his sophomore campaign, he came back on fire as a junior and led the Retrievers to the America East Conference Championship game.

Female Athlete of the Fall

Alyssa Lang- Volleyball

The 2008 Rookie of the Year went from reserve to all-conference player while solidifying her role as a major force on the team. While the team was riddled with injuries to key players Lang kept the Volleyball team alive as they made it to the America East Conference Tournament. She led the team with 234 kills, tied for third with 23 service aces, was second on the team with 197 digs, and she even recorded 25 blocks. Finally, she posted eight double-doubles this season.

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.

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.

Iman Kennedy hit a team high .800 with four kills.

It took just three sets for the volleyball team to get past the Seawolves. Stony Brook kept the sets close but UMBC got the sweep: 25-22, 25-20, 25-19.

Alyssa Lang led the team with five kills and was tied to second on the team with three digs.

Iman Kennedy was second on the team with four kills and led hitting .800.

Naomi Bush was second on the team hitting .600 with three kills.

Allie Spaay recorded seven assists and four digs while kira Giles had eight assists.

Next up for the 12-8 (4-1 AEC) Retrievers is Stony Brook again in New York for the second part of the home-and-home series.

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).