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Brooklyn, NY -- Top seeded LIU Brooklyn outlasted third-seeed Central Connecticut in a thrilling NEC Women's Volleyball Tournament final to give the Blackbirds their second straight title, fifth in the last six years and 11th in program histpry. LIU won 3-2 (25-20, 24-26, 26-24, 21-25, 15-12) in what was a back-and-forth title match on Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn.
 
LIU sophomore libero Natalia Rivera (Cayey, Puerto Rico/Radians School) delivered one of the great NEC championship performances with 38 digs to garner the tournament’s MVP award. Freshman setter Piper Matsumoto (Fort Myers, FL/Seacrest Country Day) posted the first triple-double in an NEC final since at least 1997, finishing with 10 kills, 15 digs and 55 assists. Sophomore middle blocker Filippa Hansson (Ystad, Sweden/ProCitvitas Privata) led both teams with 19 kills and NEC Player of the Year Viktoria Fink (Vienna, Austria/Polgarstrasse), a junior outside hitter, registered 15 kills and 18 digs for the Blackbirds. 
 
LIU (20-9) used a 4-0 run to jump out to an 18-12 lead in the first set.  Blackbird sophomore outside hitter Julia Azevedo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Sistema Elite de Ensino) hammered one of her five kills in the set to make it 22-17, and LIU went on to finish the frame 25-20, never having trailed. 
 
The second set looked to be a similar trend as the Blackbirds were up 9-5, 15-10, 18-12 and 20-15 before the Blue Devils unleashed an 11-2 run to even the match, 26-24. CCSU (19-18) senior libero Lindsey Massicotte (Meriden, CT/Maloney) had six of her 23 digs in the frame to help her team break even with the Blackbirds. 
 
The third set was very even as neither team led by more than two points and there were four lead changes along with 13 tie scores.  Hansson had six kills in the set while Rivera had 10 digs.  Down 24-22, the Blackbirds rallied for four consecutive points to steal the set and take a 2-1 advantage. 
 
In set four, the Blue Devils trailed 16-12 before battling back to tie the match at 16 with CCSU freshman outside hitter Emma Henderson (Prairie Village, KS) contributing on the defensive end collecting seven of her 17 digs in the set to go along with some timely kills.  Tied at 20, Central rattled off five of the next six points to force the match to a fifth set.  
 
LIU Brooklyn was first to strike in the final frame going up 6-1 thanks to a Hansson block.  After trailing 6-2 in the decisive set and still battling back for the win in last night’s match against Bryant, the Blue Devils could not stave off a balanced Blackbird attack this time around.  Ahead 12-7, LIU saw the Blue Devils fight back again but never relinquished its lead to win the final set, 15-12.  LIU sophomore middle blocker Katharina Krepper (Linz, Austria) put the match to bed with a spike as the LIU student section poured on the court to celebrate. 
 
The Blackbirds had four different players with double-digit kills and another four with double-digit digs.  Hansson and Matsumoto also make the All-Tournament Team while CCSU’s Massicotte and sophomore opposite Madelyn Kaprelyan (Huntington Beach, CA/Huntington Beach), who finished with a team-high 18 kills, received the honor as well. 

Henderson added 16 kills for the Blue Devils.

The Blackbirds will learn their NCAA opponent on Sunday, November 26 at 9 pm. The show will air live on ESPNU.
 
2017 NEC All-Tournament Team
MVP: Natalia Rivera, So. – LIU
Piper Matsumoto, Fr. – LIU
Filippa Hansson, So. - LIU
Lindsey Massicotte, Sr. – CCSU
Madelyn Kaprelyan, So. – CCSU
Taylor Lord, Jr. – RMU
Ally Lunsford, Sr. – BRY