SAINTS TO MAKE PROGRAM'S 3rd NECVA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE
March 30, 2009
After nearly three months of men's volleyball being played, the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association has announced the field of 16 which will compete for the 2009 NECVA Championship from Friday, April 3 through Sunday, April 5 in the Rockwell Cage and Dupont Gym, on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass. The NECVA Tournament Selection Committee announced the 2009 bracket on March 30, with the NECVA champion receiving the league’s automatic bid to the Molten Division III Men’s Invitational Volleyball Championship, to be held at Ramapo College. If Ramapo wins the 2009 conference title, the NECVA runner-up will also receive an automatic bid.
Overall, the top two teams in each of the conference’s five divisions, plus six at-large selections from among the 32 other eligible schools in the league, will battle for the 15th NECVA championship. The Metro, New England and Western Divisions each received two at-large bids.
Rivier College (31-1), the \#1 ranked team in the NECVA Top 10 poll for the last six weeks, is riding a remarkable 28-match winning streak and went a perfect 25-0 against NECVA schools this season. The 2006 NECVA champions, the Raiders have earned the \#1 seed in the conference tournament for the fourth time in its history. Rivier will make its ninth consecutive NECVA Tournament appearance since 2001.
After advancing to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference championship match vs. Rivier in Saturday's GNAC Tournament, Emmanuel has received the other automatic bid from the GNAC Division of NECVA. This will be the Saints' third appearance in the NECVA Tournament. Emmanuel's past appearances include a 2004 bid, which saw the Saints fall to D'Youville, and a 2007 trip in which the Saints were defeated by Eastern Mennonite.
This year, Emmanuel has enjoyed its most successful season in program history. The Saints have set the program-record for wins in a season with 18 victories thus far. Emmanuel took the title at MIT's Invitational Tournament on March 8th. The Saints recorded a program-best six-match win streak mid-way through the season. Several individual program records have fallen in 2009. Three players (Michael Townsend, Curtis Abram and Keoni Rabaino) have been named GNAC All-Conference selections. All the while, the young Emmanuel squad has just one senior playing for the team this season. Head Coach Chris Wright hopes that the team is ready to peak at just the right time, as Emmanuel faces a tough Nazareth squad on Friday afternoon in the opening round of the NECVA Tournament.
Emmanuel enters the 16-team tournament seeded 15th and will take on the 2nd-seeded Golden Flyers of Nazareth College at 2 p.m. on Friday. Nazareth's Men's Volleyball Team is currently on an 11-match win streak and the Golden Flyers are winners of 17 of their last 18 matches. Nazareth is 25-4 overall and ranked fifth nationally in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll.
2009 NORTH EAST COLLEGIATE VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS:
April 3-5, 2009 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
First Round (Friday, April 3)
MATCH \#1: (1) Rivier College (31-1) vs. (16) Hunter College (23-15), 2 p.m.
MATCH \#2: (2) Nazareth College (25-4) vs. (15) Emmanuel College (18-12), 2 p.m.
MATCH \#3: (3) Ramapo College (23-6) vs. (14) Elms College (18-12), 4 p.m.
MATCH \#4: (4) Stevens Institute of Technology (21-6) vs. (13) Eastern Mennonite University (13-15), 4 p.m.
MATCH \#5: (5) Endicott College (20-11) vs. (12) SUNY New Paltz (22-12), 6 p.m.
MATCH \#6: (6) Vassar College (17-7) vs. (11) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (25-11), 6 p.m.
MATCH \#7: (7) Newbury College (23-11) vs. (10) Philadelphia Biblical University (20-11), 8 p.m.
MATCH \#8: (8) Baruch College (33-9) vs. (9) Medaille College (15-14), 8 p.m.
Quarterfinals (Saturday, April 4)
MATCH \#9: Winner of Match \#1 vs. Winner of Match \#8, 11 a.m.
MATCH \#10: Winner of Match \#2 vs. Winner of Match \#7, 11 a.m.
MATCH \#11: Winner of Match \#3 vs. Winner of Match \#6, 1 p.m.
MATCH \#12: Winner of Match \#4 vs. Winner of Match \#5, 1 p.m.
Semifinals (Saturday, April 4)
MATCH \#13: Winner of Match \#9 vs. Winner of Match \#12, 4 p.m.
MATCH \#14: Winner of Match \#10 vs. Winner of Match \#11, 4 p.m.
Finals (Sunday, April 5)
MATCH \#15: Winner of Match \#13 vs. Winner of Match \#14, 1 p.m.
(match can be viewed live at [ http://www.necva.org/ ]www.necva.org)
View Tournament Bracket in PDF Format 