Championship
#1 Long Island 3, #2 Sacred Heart 0
Brooklyn, NY – In true top-seed fashion, the Blackbirds of Long Island topped the No. 2 Pioneers of Sacred Heart, 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-21), for the 2009 Northeast Conference Championship Crown Sunday, Nov. 22 at the Wellness, Recreation Center on the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY.
LIU took an early lead in the first set, and though SHU brought the score within three on two different occasions, they never recovered the rest of the game. The numbers were close for both teams, but LIU held the biggest edge in hitting percentage with .250 compared the SHU’s .103, led by this year’s tournament MVP sophomore Ashley Rice (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee).
In the second stanza, Sacred Heart took an early 2-0 lead and the teams fought a hard back and forth battle with the Pioneers eventually working out a 9-5 edge. Long Island hung tough and eventually tied the set at 14-14 on a kill by NEC Player of the Year Svetlana Simic (Klerk, Serbia/Commercial School). LIU extended its lead to 18-16 before the Pioneers rallied to tie with two straight points. A pair of Simic kills and an error by SHU pushed the Blackbirds ahead 21-18 and LI was able to fend off a late charge to earn the 25-20 win.
In the third set of the 71-minute match it was LIU who took the early lead at 3-0 after Rice slammed two strong kills down on the Pioneer side. The Blackbirds extended their lead to 16-8 in what seemed to be the start of their run to the crown, but SHU scored 11 of the next 14 points to fix the score at 19-19. Simic tallied a kill to give the Blackbirds back their lead, which was followed by a Maile Hetherington (Thousand Oaks, CA/Thousand Oaks) kill from the other side. LIU senior Martina Racic (Pula, Croatia/School of Arts) hit back-to-back kills before SHU had an attacking error that put the Blackbirds up 23-20. LIU then recorded an error of their own just before Simic finished out the match with the last two points for a 25-21 topping.
With a crowd of 385, SHU’s Jessica Colberg (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Polytechnic) notched a team-high 18 digs while sophomore all-tournament teamer Ashlyn Trimble (Temecula/Temecula Valley) tallied a team-best 13 kills. NEC Setter of the Year Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek racked up the most helpers (33) for the Pioneers.
In a match that marked LIU’s 18th win in the last 19 games, Simic finished with a team-high 12 kills, while classmate Dunja Milin (Pula, Croatia/School of Economics), another all-tournament team selection, had 29 assists, while sophomore Chelsey Stanton had the most digs (14).
Hoping to continue their now-12 game win streak – a new school record – LIU will await word on who it will face in the NCAA Tournament to be announced Monday, Nov. 29 at 3:00 p.m. on ESPNews.
2009 All-Tournament Team
Ashley Rice, LIU, MB, So., Marlton, NJ/Cherokee (Tournament MVP)
Dunja Milin, LIU, S, Sr., Pula, Croatia/School of Economics
Ashlyn Trimble, SHU, OH, So., Temecula, CA/Temecula Valley
Jessica Colberg, SHU, L, So., Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Polytechnic
Tori Vaughn, CCSU, MB, Jr., Salinas, CA/Salinas
Amanda Craig, RMU, OPP, Fr., Houston, TX/St. Agnes Academy
Semifinals
#1 Long Island 3, #4 Robert Morris 0
Brooklyn, NY – The top-seeded Blackbirds swept the No. 4 seed Colonials in a quick match that lasted just three minutes past an hour. Though Robert Morris showed some fight in each of the three sets, it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset.
Fittingly, the 2009 Player of the Year Svetlana Simic (Klerk, Serbia/Commercial School) struck first on a hard-hit kill to begin the noon-time match in the first of two semifinal matches of the NEC Volleyball Tournament. Shortly after, LIU took a 2-0 lead but saw it overtaken by RMU as they scored the next four points and held onto the lead before LIU went up 7-6. RMU couldn’t recover the lead again and went on to fall in that set 25-20 despite exhausting both of their timeouts to talk things over.
The second set began with the first point coming for RMU on a shared block by Lindsey Monger (Rising Sun, MD/Rising Sun) and Amanda Graham (Melbourne, FL/Eau Gallie). After holding an early 3-2 lead, the Colonials never recovered in the second set despite two long rallies that scored a point each time. The Blackbirds pulled away convincingly scoring seven unanswered points. The Colonials went back and forth with LIU for a few scores before being hit with another rally from the Blackbird side, 6-0 for a 21-10 lead. The Colonials would score just one more point in that set before LIU clinched it, 25-11, to take a two-set lead in the match.
Entering the third set, LIU used its momentum from the first two and commenced the scoring on a kill by sophomore Ashley Rice (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) and soon after gained a 7-1 lead. Though RMU pulled within six, (16-10) LIU never relinquished their lead. Rice closed out the game in the same fashion she began it with an appropriately placed kill that no Colonial could corral.
Robert Morris sophomore setter Alyssa Bennett (Ramona, CA/Ramona) finished the match with a team-leading 26 assists, while her Long Island counterpart Dunja Milin (Pula, Croatia/School of Economics) tallied 33. Simic led both sides with 14 kills while freshman all-NEC second teamer Breanna Cullity (Colorado Springs, CO/Colorado Springs School) notched the best hitting percentage at .769, which also marks a new match-high in the league.
LIU will now face the winner of the second semifinal match that pits #2 Sacred Heart against #3 Central Connecticut State on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
#2 Sacred Heart 3, #3 Central Connecticut State 0
Brooklyn, NY – In the second of two semifinal matches, No. 2 seed Sacred Heart took down third-seeded Central Connecticut State 3-0 Saturday afternoon to earn their place in the NEC Tournament title match slated for Sunday at 1:00 p.m., where they will face the top-seeded Blackbirds of Long Island.
All-NEC first teamer Brittany Best (Norco, CA/Norco) put the Pioneers on the scoreboard first after slamming the ball home from a Jessica Colberg (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Polytechnic) assist. SHU took a 2-0 lead before Central scored to bring it back within one. The score went to 6-4 and SHU turned out a 4-0 run before CCSU brought it to 10-5. The Blue Devils chipped away and were able to tie the game at 15 but they could only score three more points as SHU pulled away to win 25-18.
SHU again scored the first point to start the second set, but this time it was Johanna Ovsenek (London, Ontario/Saunders Secondary) who tallied the kill after receiving the ball from NEC Setter of the Year Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek (Santa Barbara, CA/Santa Barbara). The Pioneers made it look as if they were going to run away with the set after scoring the first seven points, but Central came back on the court after regrouping in a timeout to score the next point. The Pioneers held their lead before CCSU tallied eight unanswered points and brought the game to a tie, 15-15. From that mark, the two teams battled through 13 tie scores and six lead changes, which set up the final point coming from an Ashlyn Trimble (Temecula, CA/Temecula Valley) kill fittingly set up by Kidd-Kadlubek ending the match, 30-28.
In the match’s final set, SHU again put their name on the board first going on a 6-0 run. There were no lead changes or tie scores this time around as the Pioneers never surrendered the lead. In the same form she started the second set, Ovsenek ended the match with her seventh kill of the game to propel the Pioneer contingent into the championship tilt.
NEC Rookie of the Year Emily Cochran (Adel, IA/Adel-DeSoto-Minburn) led the Blue Devils in digs (16), while all-NEC second team selection Amanda Bayer (Allen, TX/Allen) totaled 21 assists to lead the squad. All-NEC first team member senior Jaime Baumert (Elkhorn, NE/Elkhorn) tallied eight blocks in the game, which broke a Central single season record for total blocks (154).
SHU improved their team hitting percentage from .021 in the first set to .324 in the final, deciding set, thanks to Kidd-Kadlubek’s team-best .800 hitting percentage. She also tallied the most assists (44), while sophomore Colberg notched a team-leading 36 digs. Trimble and freshman Elise Sage (Greenwood Village, CO/Cherry Valley) both scored three service aces.