For Immediate Release: December 2, 2005
Contact: Thomas Moore II (sports@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-2956

Binghamton volleyball swept by No. 2 Penn State in the NCAA tournament
Bearcats' stellar season comes to an end in first round

Box score
Post-Match Quotes

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--Host No. 2 Penn State (30-2) swept Binghamton (20-12) 3-0, in an NCAA women's volleyball first round match Friday night in Rec Hall in front of 945 fans. Penn State will now host Long Island, a 3-0 winner over Cornell, in a second-round matchup on Saturday. The Bearcats lost by scores of 15-30, 8-30, 10-30.

"I thought our ball club had a great year," head coach Glenn Kiriyama said. "There wasn’t much expected of them at the beginning but they have proven a lot of people wrong just to get this far. We are honored just to play Penn State, we were up against a great team tonight."

The Nittany Lions opened the match with a 23-7 run in the first game. Binghamton however battled back with a 7-2 run to make the score 25-14. The final two Bearcat points of that run came on back-to-back blocks, first block was by sophomore outside hitter Kathleen Schauer (Littleton, Colo.) and junior middle blocker Megan Hoag (Brunswick, Ohio) then the second by Hoag and junior outside hitter Katie Brody (Vestal, N.Y.). Penn State went on to win the game 30-15.

The second game was controlled by the Nittany Lions, who went on to win 30-8.

The Bearcats opened the third game fighting. The squad started the game down just 7-5. The Nittany Lions then squashed all hopes of a close game with a 15-0 run. Penn State won the final game 30-10.

Brody led the Bearcats with seven kills and eight digs. Hoag and Brody each had a team-high four blocks. Freshman outside hitter Brianna Strong (Elkhart, Ind.) and Hoag each had six digs. Junior setter Ashley Meffert (Louisville, Ky.) passed a team-high 13 assists.

Penn State was led by freshman outside hitter Nicole Fawcett, who had 18 kills without an error on 25 attempts and by senior libero Kaleena Walters with 17 digs.

Binghamton, which carried the America East championship banner into the NCAA tournament, ends its amazing season. The Bearcats, who were picked to finish sixth in the seven-team conference, captured the program's first America East title.

"This program has come a long was in its five years as an NCAA Division I program," Kiriyama said. "We are working every year on getting better. We have everyone back next year so were hoping we can build and continue to get better each year."

The NCAA appearance was Binghamton's first at the Division I level and first since 1997, when the then-Division III program advanced for the second time in three years.