ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Fresh off the championship of the Empire 8 Conference and benefitting from the league's automatic bid, Nazareth will continue its women's volleyball season this weekend in Potsdam as part of the 64-team field in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Golden Flyers (26-12) were awarded the fifth seed in the eight-team New York Regional and will play at fourth-seeded Clarkson (28-8) Friday at 8 p.m. at Clarkson's Alumni Gymnasium. Semifinal matches will be played Saturday at 3:30 and 6 p.m. respectively and the regional championship match is Sunday at 4 p.m.
In other matches Friday at Clarkson, sixth-seeded Rivier (22-13) plays third-seeded Skidmore (27-8) at 12:30 p.m.; seventh-seeded Colby-Sawyer (20-14) plays second-seeded Middlebury (21-8) at 3 p.m. and eighth-seeded Southern Vermont (31-2) plays top-seeded Cortland (39-1) at 5:30 p.m.
All matches will be available via
B2/AmericaOne web-braodcasting. Sound and video will be provided. Cost is $7 per match. Sing-set results will be available via the
Clarkson Athletics Twitter feed.
Nazareth is making its ninth NCAA Tournament appearance, but its first since 2007. The Golden Flyers also won their first conference title since 2006.
NOTES: Nazareth won the conference title with weekend wins over Stevens (25-14, 25-20, 25-21) and Elmira (25-17, 23-25, 27-25, 25-21). The Elmira win avenged an earlier defeat.
Maria Allocco, a 6-foot-1 freshman and the Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Year, was named tournament MVP after hitting 33-3-49 (.612) combined for the two matches. Junior setter
Aubrey Cooke had 88 assists in the two matches and was named to the all-tournament team along with freshman outside hitter
Chelsea Beecher, who hit 16-4-40 (.300) in the Elmira match... In addition to Allocco, Cooke and senior
Ashlee Travis were recognized last week as second-team Empire 8 Conference all-stars. Beecher was an honorable mention selection... Of the seven other teams in the regional, Nazareth has played only Cortland this season, falling in three sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-20) back on Sept. 3... Nazareth also has played three other tournament qualifiers in Heidelberg (31-6), Mt. Union (24-7) and Salisbury (31-3). The Golden Flyers lost to Heidelberg and Mt. Union in three sets each and to Salisbury in four... Head coach Cal Wickens was named E8 Coach of the year for the second time in his nine seasons as head of the women's program. He has a career record of 202-134 (.601). He also coached the Nazareth men's team to the national title last spring and was named Division III Coach of the Year. In seven seasons as men's coach, Wickens has a record of 159-60 (.726).