QU Volleyball Heads To New York City, Looking To Build On 4-1 Start

Friday, September 2

Brooklyn Heights, NY

6:30 PM

Quinnipiac University

New Jersey Institute of Technology

QU Volleyball Heads To New York City, Looking To Build On 4-1 Start

9/1/2016 9:36:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

By: QU Sports Information

Quinnipiac Bobcats at Terrier/Rose Hill Classic
Sept. 2-3, 2016
Saint Francis Brooklyn/Fordham University
Friday, 6:30 p.m. Quinnipiac vs. NJIT (at Saint Francis)
Saturday, 11:30 a.m. Quinnipiac at Saint Francis
Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Quinnipiac at Fordham

Saint Francis Video: SFCAthletics.com
Fordham Stats: FordhamSports.com
Fordham Video: FordhamSports.com
Follow on Twitter: @QUWVB

LAST MATCH
Quinnipiac improved to 4-1 on the season with a 3-0 win over Bryant on Wednesday evening in its home opener at Burt Kahn Gymnasium. The Bobcats cruised to a 25-16 win in the first set, and then battled back from late deficits in the second and third sets for a pair of 25-23 wins. Sophomore Kat Miller had 10 kills and eight blocks to lead the Bobcats in both categories, as Quinnipiac totaled 16 blocks as a team. Senior Allison Leigh and junior Elzabeth Kloos had a hand in seven blocks apiece as well. Freshman setter Maria Pansari had 26 assists and freshman libero Alejandra Rodriguez had 15 digs to lead Quinnipiac in both of those categories.

HISTORIC START
The Quinnipiac volleyball team's 4-1 record, including 3-1 at the La Salle Invitational last weekend and a home win over Bryant, marks the best start that the Bobcats have had since joining the Division I ranks in 1998. In fact, Quinnipiac picked up three wins in just over 24 hours at the two-day tournament, needing little more than a day to match its win total from all of last season. The Bobcats now have four wins after defeating Bryant, more than either last year (three) or 2014 (two) and one less than 2013. The last time the program had more than six wins was in 2002, when it finished 10-15, a figure that the Bobcats could reach before Labor Day if it gets two wins in its three matches this weekend.

LAST MATCH vs NJIT
The Bobcats open the Terrier/Rose Hill Classic on Friday against NJIT (hosted by Saint Francis Brooklyn). Quinnipiac has already faced the Highlanders once this season, coming away with a hard-fought 3-1 win at the La Salle Invitational on Saturday. After winning the first set 26-24 and dropping the second, the Bobcats turned it up a notch and took the final two sets 25-13 and 25-18 to come away with the win. Maria Pansari had 40 assists to pace a balanced offense as Jen Coffey has 12 kills, Natalie Alechko had 11, and Kat Miller had 10.

LAST YEAR vs SAINT FRANCIS BROOKLYN
The Bobcats hosted Saint Francis a year ago in their home opener and dropped a 3-0 decision. The team that took the floor that day looked vastly different than the current one, as Elizabeth Kloos is the only starter still in the same role as she was a year ago. Kat Miller also started that match, but as a setter, while she currently plays outside hitter. Allison Leigh and Jen Coffey both were out with injuries, while freshmen Natalie Alechko, Maria Pansari and Alejandra Rodriguez were still in high school. Kloos had 14 kills and only two errors, while Domenique Gerard had 14 kills for the Terriers.

TWO GYMS, ONE DAY
The tournament format this weekend is an usual one which will see Quinnipiac play two road matches on the same day in two different boroughs. The Bobcats play at Saint Francis Brooklyn on Saturday at 11:30 a.m., and then cross the bridge to the Bronx to face Fordham at 4:30 p.m. NJIT will do the same thing in the opposite direction, facing Fordham in the morning and Saint Francis in the afternoon. Saint Francis will host a Friday doubleheader, entertaining Fordham at 4 p.m. and then serving as a neutral site for the Quinnipiac-NJIT match.

LEIGH, PANSARI EARN MAAC WEEKLY HONORS
Senior middle hitter Allison Leigh and freshman setter Maria Pansari were named the MAAC Player of the Week and MAAC Rookie of the Week respectively, after an opening weekend which saw the Bobcats go 3-1 at the La Salle Invitational. Leigh became the first Bobcat to earn a conference player of the week honor since current senior Emma Ogden won it is as a freshman in 2013, and is only the fifth player in program history to earn the award since the program moved to Division I in 1998. It is also the first time that the Bobcats have swept both the Player and Rookie of the Week honors in their league in the same season.

LEIGH'S RENEWAL
Senior middle hitter Allison Leigh is back after missing all but the first three matches of last season with an injury. She came into the 2016 campaign already ranking fifth in school history in career blocks (286) after only two full seasons, as well as second among players who played their entire careers at the Division I level. Her 6-3 presence in the middle was sorely missed a year ago, and she wasted no time this season in proving her value, earning a spot on the All-Tournament team at the La Salle Invitational last weekend after tallying 32 kills and only nine errors in four matches. She also added 14 blocks, giving her exactly 300 in her career (she now has 307). Leigh was off to an impressive start last season before her injury, tallying 23 blocks in only three matches, including a high of 10. She ranked third in the MAAC in blocks per set as a sophomore with 1.16.

BLOCK PARTY
Quinnipiac totaled 16 blocks as a team in its win over Bryant on Wednesday, including an impressive nine in the first set alone. After falling behind 3-1 in the first set, the Bobcats had blocks on four straight points to take a 5-3 lead and added another one to make the score 8-4. With the score 23-16, Bryant called a timeout and Quinnipiac ended the set with two straight blocks. In the first set, Bryant had 10 kills, just one more than the number of blocks that the Bobcats had. For the match, Kat Miller led the way with eight blocks (two solo), while Allison Leigh and Elizabeth Kloos each had seven.

FRESHMEN HAVE IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Freshman libero Alejandra Rodriguez joined Allison Leigh (see above) in being named to the All-Tournament team at the La Salle Invitational after leading the Bobcats in digs on the weekend with 53 (including 23 in her debut against Saint Francis of Pennsylvania on Friday). Rodriguez wasn't the only freshman to make her presence felt on opening weekend either, as setter Maria Pansari quarterbacked the offense with 153 assists (10.2 per set) and broke 40 assists in all three wins, with a high of 48 against Saint Francis (12 per set). Freshman outside hitter Natalie Alechko, meanwhile, was second on the Bobcats with 41 kills and had two double-doubles, tallying 15 kills and 14 digs against Saint Francis and 11 kills and 10 digs against NJIT. She currently has 50 kills, right behind Jen Coffey (54) for the team lead.

COFFEY TALK
Sophomore outside hitter Jen Coffey was named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team last season in a vote of the league's head coaches last fall and started off this season in fine fashion, leading Quinnipiac with 50 kills at the La Salle Invitational. Coffey started out the season with 19 kills against Saint Francis (Pa.), setting a new career high, passing the 18 she had against UMass Lowell last year. In 2015, Coffey ranked third on the Bobcats with 176 kills in just 18 matches while leading the Bobcats with 2.71 kills per set. She posted arguably her best match of the season in the Bobcats' 2015 finale at home against Manhattan with 14 kills in 18 attempts, giving her a 722 hitting percentage.

SENIOR CLASS
Quinnipiac enters the new season with a seven-member senior class, who will be looking to lead the Bobcats back to the postseason this fall. Setter Emma Ogden, middle hitters Allison Leigh and Sam Alechko, outside hitters Katie Urycki and Jamie Paolucci, and defensive specialists Cody Michaels and Jana Kmec give the Bobcats plenty of veteran leadership, in contrast to a year ago, when Chandler Thornton was the only senior on the roster. Urycki was lost for the season with an injury she suffered in the first week of practice, while Leigh and Ogden have missed full seasons in the past with injuries and also have a year of eligibility remaining. Alechko has also yet to play this season with an injury.

SISTER ACT
The Bobcats have two sets of siblings on this year's team, with the addition of freshman outside hitter Natalie Alechko and freshman defensive specialist Lauren Miller to the roster. Alechko's older sister, Sam, is a senior outside hitter on this year's squad, while Miller's older sister, Kat, is a sophomore setter/outside hitter.

VILLA MARIA CONNECTION
Sophomore Kat Miller, freshman Lauren Miller (Kat's younger sister), and freshman Kaleigh Oates were all part of a successful Villa Maria Academy high school program in Pennsylvania before coming to Quinnipiac. Oates and Laura Miller helped Villa Maria earn a District 1 championship and an appearance in the state semifinals last fall, while the three alumnae were responsible for leading the team to AACA league titles and district finals appearances in 2013 and 2014.

MISS VERSATILITY
Sophomore Kat Miller was one of the most valuable members of the Bobcats in her freshman season, due to her ability to play multiple positions. Miller vacillated between the setter and outside hitter positions and was successful in both roles, tallying a team-high 454 assists and 280 digs, while also 164 kills and 73 blocks. Miller would often change positions in the same match, including a near-triple double with 21 assists, 12 digs, nine kills and four blocks in a win over Saint Peter's. She has settled into an outside hitter role this year and has 36 kills on a .220 percentage through the first five matches.

RETURNING STATISTICAL LEADERS
The Bobcats returned a wealth of talent from a year ago, including their top six leaders in kills. Senior Katie Urycki led the way last season with 279 kills, while junior Elizabeth Kloos was second with 218. Kloos was also the most efficient attacker with a .272 hitting percentage, followed by senior Sam Alechko with a .225 percentage. Sophomore Jen Coffey, meanwhile, was tops on the Bobcats in kills per set with 2.71, followed by Urycki's 2.61, while sophomore Kat Miller (454) was the team leader in assists. Defensively, Kloos (111) and Alechko (88) were 1-2 in blocks (senior Allison Leigh was at an impressive 1.92 blocks per set through three matches, before being lost to injury). Miller and senior Cody Michaels were 1-2 in digs with 280 and 235, respectively.

NEXT UP
Quinnipiac will be back in action at the Terrier/Rise Hill Classic this weekend, playing three matches total against NJIT, Saint Francis Brooklyn and Fordham. Saturday will be a unique day as the Bobcats will play two road matches in two different boroughs, playing at Saint Francis at 11:30 a.m. in Brooklyn and then crossing over the bridge to meet Fordham in the Bronx at 4:30 p.m.