BALTIMORE — The defending America East champion UMBC Volleyball has signed Megan Hunter, Dasia Johnson and Elly Vandlingham, head coach Kasey Crider announced on Friday.

“We’re always looking for ways to upgrade after championship seasons – complacency is a reliable villain in stories of sustained success,” said Crider. “One of the easiest ways to upgrade is to add talent that fits your roster.  In respect to the incoming class of freshmen, we absolutely feel like we’ve done that.  We’ve added talent across the board, but more importantly, we’ve added good character, which is often the main characters in those same stories.” 

Megan Hunter

Setter

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Markville Secondary School

Pakmen Volleyball Club

Coach Crider: “Our program has found really good success recruiting internationally.  Megan continues that tradition.  We believe she’ll be able to step in immediately to fill the sizeable hole left by Serin Maden, a four year starter at setter for us.  She has excellent instincts and her experience competing for Canada’s various national team programs suggest she won’t be overwhelmed by the step up in level.”

Dasia Johnson

OH

Coral Springs, FL

North Broward Preparatory School

Wildfire Volleyball Academy

Coach Crider: “Dasia is an outside hitter that we spent quite a long time evaluating and recruiting.  We feel like we got a long runway to understand her as a player and at every stage of the process, we felt like she would be a huge value add.  She’s an elite athlete with excellent explosiveness as an attacker and blocker, and her history as a true six rotation outside hitter provides a particularly high floor from day one.  Add in the Florida state high school championship this year, and we’re getting an elite player with elite pedigree.”

Elly Vanlandingham

L/DS

Gaithersburg, MD

Quince Orchard High School

Metro Volleyball Club of DC

Coach Crider: “Elly is local, which is always a huge plus.  But adding her was never about checking a geographic box; it was about adding an extremely accomplished and solid defensive specialist.  She comes from a nationally renowned club program and won’t be intimidated by a tough practice environment or challenging schedule.”

The Retrievers are coming off of their fifth America East Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons. 

LaSure arrives at Columbia following a highly successful decade as Director of Cross Country and Track & Field at Academy of Art University, where he led the program to sustained national prominence at the NCAA Division II level. During his tenure, his teams earned 14 top-10 national finishes, including multiple top-five performances, while producing more than 20 individual national champions and over 300 All-Americans across sprints, hurdles, middle distance, jumps, and relays.

A nationally recognized coach, LaSure has earned 11 NCAA Division II West Region Coach of the Year awards and coached athletes to five NCAA national records, multiple National Track Athlete of the Year honors, and an Olympic bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games.

His impact extended well beyond performance, as his programs consistently posted strong academic results, including multiple USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors and significant improvements in team GPA.

Prior to his time at Academy of Art, LaSure served as head coach of cross country and track & field at the University of New Haven for eight seasons after beginning his collegiate coaching career there as an assistant. Across both head coaching stops, his teams combined for numerous national qualifiers, conference championships, and regional honors, cementing his reputation as a program builder and elite developer of student-athletes.

In addition to his on-track success, LaSure is a longtime leader within the coaching profession. He has been deeply involved with the USTFCCCA Executive Committee, serving as president (2017–21) and executive council chair (2021–24), and remains a highly respected voice in collegiate track and field nationally.

While Coach LaSure will work with all track and field and cross country student-athletes, he will directly oversee the men’s and women’s sprints and relays squads.

Stay up to date on all things Columbia track & field and cross country by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsXCTF), Instagram (@culionsxctf) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).

A Sheridan Lady Bronc hurdler will continue her running and jumping ways at the collegiate level.

Loralai Ketner has signed a written offer of athletic aid, to compete at Augustana College, which is a private Lutheran University, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Last school year, as a junior, she was the state champ in the 4A Girls 300 meter hurdles race.

After quitting soccer, Ketner says she started competing in track in her 7th grade year.

She had also been considering the University of Sioux Falls, but liked the team bonding activities at Augustana College better.

“Comparing the 2, we fell in love with Sioux Falls and just the city itself and then Augustana, the coach is amazing, Emily is great and then the campus was great and we got to meet a lot of their team and we made bracelets, so I think things that build the team together is what pushed me more towards Augustana than USF or any other college that I had toured.”

Ketner adds she is considering majoring in nursing.

The Augustana University Viking and Lady Viking Athletic Program competes at the NCAA Division II level, in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

ECAC Announces 2025 Division I Women’s Volleyball All-ECAC and Major Awards

12/12/2025 8:55:36 AM

DANBURY, Conn. – The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) has announced its 2025 Division I Women’s Volleyball All-ECAC Teams and major awards.
 
Korrin Burns from Saint Francis University won Offensive Player of the Year. Jessie Golden of Brown University won Defensive Player of the Year. Yale’s Ava Poinsett won Rookie of the Year and Lauren Steinbrecher of James Madison University won Coach of the Year.
 
 
Korrin Burns – Saint Francis University, Outside Hitter
 

Jessie Golden – Brown University, Libero
 

Ava Poinsett – Yale University, Outside Hitter
 

Lauren Steinbrecher – James Madison University, Coach

ECAC Division I Women’s Volleyball All-ECAC First Team*

TaKenya Stafford – Coppin State, Rs-Sr., OH

Kiannisha Santiago – Rider University, Sr., OPP

Korrin Burns – Saint Francis University, Sr., OH

Kennedy Louisell – James Madison University, Jr., OH

Izadora Stedile – Hofstra University, Sr., OH

Alexandra Sappia – Saint Francis University, Rs-Sr., S

Jessie Golden – Brown University, Sr., L

ECAC Division I Women’s Volleyball All-ECAC Second Team

Kali Moore – Stony Brook University, Sr., OH

Arianna Ugolini – Bryant University, Sr., OH

Maya Walker – Fairfield University, Sr., MB

Ava Poinsett – Yale University, Fr., OH

Sydney Draper – Princeton University, Jr., S

Coco Figueroa – Coppin State, Jr., L

 

*additional due to ties in voting

ABOUT THE ECAC

The ECAC is an eighty-six year old intercollegiate athletics organization with roughly 200 member schools for traditional sports across all three NCAA Divisions – I, II and III – that exists to enhance the experience of student-athletes participating in NCAA sports, and provide great value for universities, by sponsoring championships, leagues, bowl games, tournaments and other competitions throughout the country. The ECAC also hosts a comprehensive esports program, with over 300 schools, 4,000 teams and 10,000-plus participants in twenty-four different games titles.

STAY CONNECTED

Stay updated on the latest news, championships and more by connecting with the ECAC on Facebook (ECACSports), Twitter (@ECACSports) and Instagram (@ECACSports).

Heading into 2026, both the NYU men’s and women’s track and field teams are aiming to build upon last season’s 42nd and 62nd place finishes, respectively, at the NCAA Division III championships last year. Additionally, NYU hopes to beat the total of nine runners the teams sent to the championships in Ohio last season. 

After competing in its first meet of the season at the Dec. 5th FastTrack Season Opener on Staten Island and sending four runners from the women’s team to the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 6, the Violets officially began its season on a positive note. 

According to head coach Tyler Deck Shipley, this served as an opportunity for competitors to “see where they’re at” and give runners from cross country season a proper transition indoors, as the athletes integrate into both teams and compete year-round.

“That’s the beauty of our sport,” Shipley said. “In no other sport are we together throughout the entire academic year. A huge reason why we’ve been successful is the commitment that they’ve had to the team and to each other all year round, and letting this be a really stabilizing factor in people’s lives while they’re at NYU.”

With the first meet, the team is able to gauge where they were in comparison to last year and avenge some shortcomings.

“Last year we ran into some injuries, and so some of the best people didn’t quite get there,” Shipley said. “If all goes according to plan, we can be a big step up this year.”

The team’s runners have been open about their goal to stack the field at the NCAA’s. After strong seasons last year, junior distance runner Julian Aske and senior distance runner Janie Cooper emerged as two contenders to qualify for the championships at the end of the season. In the field events, senior thrower Emma Grunin finished 14th in shot put at the UAA Indoor Championships in 2025, and senior thrower Daniel Lee placed ninth in the weighted throws, setting both up for a potential nationals bid this season.

Team culture has been a focal point for the Violets. Not just the men’s and women’s respective cultures, but the overall team culture has “always been top of mind,” according to Shipley, especially with competitors traveling to many different events on any given competition day.

“Most of us are from areas other than New York,” senior thrower Kai Aravena said. “We don’t have family coming, so having your team there to cheer you on helps a lot.”

Leaders of the team like Aravena have highlighted the need for consistency in the team’s performances and emphasized the intensity in early practices so far.

“People have been putting in work at practice,” Aravena said. “They seemed like they were excited and ready to compete, which in previous seasons it wasn’t as such.

As both the men’s and women’s teams break for the winter recess, the teams will return on Jan. 16 for the NYC Gotham Cup on Staten Island. Looking forward, each team has weekly events after the season starts, heading into the UAA Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1, followed by the NCAA Indoor Championships on Mar. 13 and 14. The teams will round out the season at the UAA Outdoor Championships on Apr. 25 and 26  and NCAA Outdoor Championships on May 21, 22 and 23.

“I always say that track and field is an individual sport disguised as a team sport, because you can’t really affect how another person on your team is doing,” Aravena said. “Having a few individual performances that do stand out would absolutely be ideal, because it shows that people have been putting in the work and we were still there to support them.”

Contact Naseem Rahman at [email protected].