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Somerset, NJ — The 2011 Northeast Conference (NEC) Women's Volleyball Tournament is set to begin on Saturday, November 19 at the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center on the campus of regular season co-champion Long Island in Brooklyn, NY. Play commences on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. when top-seeded Long Island faces off with #4 Robert Morris in the first-of-two semifinal matches. The following matchup features #2 Sacred Heart and #3 Central Connecticut at 5:30 p.m. The championship match is slated for Sunday, November 20 at 3:00 p.m. The winner of the NEC Tournament receives the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with first-round action beginning in early December on campus sites to be determined. The Tournament will be webcast live on NortheastConference.TV. You can also follow the action via Twitter.
After a one year hiatus from the top-spot, Long Island (20-12, 14-2 NEC) and fourth-year head coach Kyle Robinson bring the tournament back to Brooklyn with the help of star players Hanna Gibeau (Arvada, CO/Ralston Valley), Vera Djuric (Lazarevac, Serbia/Svetozar Markovic) and Annika Foit (Hausach, Germany/Robert-Gerwig-Gymnasium), who have won a combined ten Molten/NEC weekly honors this season. After falling in last year’s semifinals, the Blackbirds will look to take home the program’s seventh championship trophy. Following a highly productive regular season in which she collected four Molten/NEC Player of the Week honors, Gibeau enters the postseason second in the league in kills (481) and kills per game (4.26). The sophomore has also racked up 61 blocks and 232 digs. Djuric, a freshman who won back-to-back Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week honors in October, currently leads the league 10.72 assists per game and has also put up strong defensive numbers, tallying 73 blocks and 243 digs this fall. Foit, the third member of the award-winning trifecta and four-time Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week award winner, ranks sixth in the league with 3.53 kills per game. Foit also contrbiutes 2.40 digs per game, good for second on the club, and has registered 62 blocks The trip is supported by the sister act of Jessica Rice (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) and Ashley Rice (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee). Jessica is a three-time Molten/NEC Defensive Player of the Week who leads the circuit with 1.30 blocks per game,while Ashley broke the NEC's single-match blocks record with 19 in against Sacred Heart earlier this month.
Sacred Heart (25-7, 14-2 NEC) will look to make it two in a row after capturing the program's first NEC Championship trophy a year ago. Under the guidance of fifth-year head coach Rob Machan, the Pioneers charged out to a 6-0 start in league competition this fall before falling to Robert Morris and Long Island. All the wiser, Sacred Heart was able to avenge both losses and finish off the season strong defeating the Colonials in straight sets in the last weekend of play and besting the Blackbirds in a 3-2 battle the weekend prior. The Pioneers have frustrated opponents all season defensively, holding opponents to a league-low .157 hitting percentage due in part to the play of two time Molten/NEC Defensive Player of the Week Jessica Colberg (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Polytechnic). On the season, the senior libero averages 4.13 digs per game, ranking her fifth in the Conference. The California native is supported by Kimmee Roleder (Pasadena, CA/Pasadena), an outside hitter who is third on the loop in kills (3.86 per game) and ranks second on the Pioneers with 3.24 digs per game. Johanna Ovsenek (London, Ontario/Saunders Secondary), a junior middle blocker, leads the team in blocks (77), while junior Elise Sage (Greenwood Village, CO/Cherry Creek), a two-time Molten/NEC Player of the Week winner, tops the Pioneers with a .339 hitting percentage, which ranks her fifth in the league. The Pioneers also sport the freshman duo of Alisa Mesa (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Polytechnic) and Alissa Young (La Verne, CA/Saint Lucy’s Priory) who have each taken home a pair of Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week honors.
Central Connecticut State (18-14, 12-4 NEC) certainly has experience on its side as they make their ninth straight tournament appearance. Led by Sara DeLacey (Spring Lake Park, MN/Spring Lake Park) and Emily Cochran (Adel, IA/Adel-DeSoto-Minburn) the Blue Devils will look to bring a title back to New Britain for the first time in program history. DeLacey, a senior right side hitter and 2010 second-team All-Conference honoree, ranks third in the league in hitting percentage (.353) and has posted 236 kills this fall. The Minnesota native enters the postseason having racked up a team best 107 blocks. Cochran, the 2009 NEC Rookie of the Year, leads the Blue Devils and sits fourth in the NEC with 3.79 kills per game. Senior setter Danielle Gasser (New Milford, CT/New Milford) will also add to the mix as she ranks second in the with 10.62 assists per game. Junior Jamie Rademacher (New Lenox, IL/Lincoln-Way Central) will also be a key piece to the championship equation. She is the NEC's second most efficient hitter (.354) and is CCSU's second-leading blocker (96). Freshman libero Brittany Schumacher (Hartford, WI/Hartford Union), who received one Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week and a pair of Molten/NEC Defensive Player of the Week honors in her first season as a Blue Devil, sports an impressive 4.31 digs per game average, the third besr mark in the league. Longtime head coach Linda Sagnelli recently tallied win number 200 with the Blue Devils.
Second year head coach Dale Starr brings Robert Morris (15-16, 10-6 NEC) back to the playoffs after finishing as runner-up last season. The Colonials hold the distinction of being the only team to beat both Long Island and Sacred Heart this season. RMU is led by senior middle blocker Hannah Veith (Columbus, OH/Worthington), a two-way force for the Colonials this season. The 2010 first team All-NEC honoree ranks first in the conference in hitting percentage (.376), and has logged two Molten/NEC Player of the Week and two Molten/NEC Defensive Player of the Week honors this season. Her most productive week occurred during the opening weekend of league play (9/26) in which she took home both the NEC Player and Defender of the Week awards along with National Player of the Week honors. The Ohio native also ranks second in the league in blocks (133) and blocks per game (1.14), and has compiled four matches with at least eight blocks on the year. She is supported by junior outside hitter Lindsey Monger (Rising Sun, MD/Rising Sun), who has excelled offensively for the Colonials over the course of the regular season, sporting a 3.53 kills per game average, which places her first on the team and fifth in the NEC. Monger also notched mid-season national recognition, earning a National Player of the Week honor after she recorded 44 kills and 31 digs in a pair of wins over Saint Francis (PA) and Fairleigh Dickinson. Molten/NEC Rookie of the Week honorees Erica Robb (Novi, MI/Novi) and Hannah Hoffman (Parker, CO/Ponderosa) are a pair of impact freshman who will also contribute for the Colonials.
2011 Head-to-Head Matchups
Long Island (4-2) • Sacred Heart (4-2) • Central Conn. St. (2-4) • Robert Morris (2-4)
Robert Morris 3, Long Island 1 • Brooklyn, NY • September 24
Long Island 3, Central Connecticut 1 • New Brittan, CT • October 1
Sacred Heart 3, Central Connecticut 1 • New Brittan, CT • October 2
Central Connecticut 3, Robert Morris 1 • Moon Township, PA • October 9
Robert Morris 3, Sacred Heart 1 • Fairfield, CT • October 15
Sacred Heart 3, Central Connecticut 1 •Fairfield, CT • October 22
Long Island 3, Sacred Heart 2 • Brooklyn, NY • October 23
Long Island 3, Robert Morris 2 • Moon Township • October 29
Sacred Heart 3, Long Island 2 • Fairfield, CT • November 6
Central Connecticut 3, Robert Morris 1 • New Brittan, CT • November 6
Long Island 3, Central Connecticut 0 • Brooklyn, NY • November 13
Sacred Heart 3, Robert Morris 0 • Moon Township, PA • November 13
Notes
• Regular season co-champion Long Island hosts the NEC Tournament for the second time in three years. LIU has won six of the last seven league titles. All four times the Blackbirds have hosted in the last seven years they have come away with the championship trophy.
• In Rob Machan's five-year stint at Sacred Heart, he has led the team to a playoff bid each year beginning in 2007.
• After finishing the 2010 season in second place (13-3), Robert Morris has earned a spot in the NEC Tournament every year since its inception except for the 1998 season.
• CCSU has reached the postseason nine straight years and 12 times in total since it first started sponsoring the sport in the NEC in 1998.
• The same four teams earned playoff bids last season, except none of the four teams kept the same seed number. Last season Sacred Heart won the regular season title and was the top seed, followed by Robert Morris (#2), Long Island (#3) and Central Connecticut (#4). This season Long Island earned the top seed followed by Sacred Heart (#2), Central Connecticut (#3) and Robert Morris (#4).
• Although Sacred Heart and Long Island posted the same NEC record, the Blackbirds received the top seed via coin flip after all tiebreakers were exhausted.
• Of the 39 weekly honors awarded this year, the four playoff teams earned 37 of them. Long Island collected 14, while Sacred Heart nabbed 10, Robert Morris garnered seven and CCSU took home six.