STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The LIU Brooklyn volleyball team takes part in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend, taking on No. 16 overall seed Penn State, Friday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Rec Hall in State College, Pa. LIU earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament by winning its' tenth Northeast Conference championship, November 22. It is the Blackbirds' tenth trip to the NCAA Tournament in the past 13 years. LIU went 12-4 in conference play this season, and 16-14 overall.
TOURNAMENT TIMETABLE
Friday, Dec. 2
Dayton vs. Pitt - 5 p.m.
LIU Brooklyn at #16-seed Penn State - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 3
Friday Winners - 6:30 p.m.
State College, Pa. (Rec Hall)
LAST TIME OUT
• The LIU Brooklyn volleyball team clinched its tenth Northeast Conference Championship in 13 years on Nov. 20. The ten titles are the most by any volleyball team in NEC history.
• The Blackbirds won the 2016 NEC title, in one of the most dramatic championship matches in conference history. LIU faced two different championship points over two sets, and had Sacred Heart rally back against five championship points, before the Blackbirds finally beat regular season champions and top seed Pioneers, 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 11-25, 27-25, 19-17).
• Senior
Alex Larsen was named NEC Tournament MVP, while freshmen
Filippa Hansson and
Amanda Hubbard were named to the All-Tournament team.
• Larsen had 17 kills hitting .314 in the match, along with nine digs. Sophomore
Jiayi Zhang had 12 kills and five blocks, while junior
Viktoria Fink had 11 kills and 11 digs for the double-double. Freshmen middle blockers
Filippa Hansson and
Katharina Krepper had seven blocks apiece, while freshman
Emily Magee had 10 digs on defense. And setter
Amanda Hubbard had 50 assists in the win for LIU, along with seven digs and four blocks at the net.
• Just two days after their championship win, the LIU Brooklyn volleyball team added one more win to their season total, beating non-conference foe Stony Brook at home, 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-17, 25-23).
• Junior
Alexandra Lilliquist led the Blackbirds with a double double, registering 12 kills and 15 digs. Magee had 10 digs and season-high six service aces in the win. Zhang had 10 kills, four blocks and two aces, while Larsen had nine kills, 10 digs and an ace. Hubbard added 36 assists and a team-high five blocks.
NEC HONOREES
• Three members of the LIU Brooklyn volleyball team were honored by the coaches of the Northeast Conference, it was announced by the league office at the NEC Tournament banquet .Senior
Alex Larsen earned first-team All-NEC honors, while sophomore
Viktoria Fink and freshman
Amanda Hubbard earned second-team All-NEC honors. It was the first postseason honors for all three Blackbirds.
• Larsen led LIU Brooklyn and ranked fifth in the NEC with 2.94 kills per set over the course of the regular season. She also ranks ninth in the league in service aces (0.28/set) for the Blackbirds, who enter the NEC Tournament as the second seed following a 10-4 regular season. The opposite hitter finished the season leading the team with 25 total service aces. She was also third on the team with 210 digs, for a 2.33 digs per set average, and finished the regular season third on the team with 55 total blocks.
• Fink also ranked in the top ten in the NEC in attacks, with a 2.66 kills per set average, while improved to 3.02 kills per set in NEC play. She finished the year ranked in the top five on the team in both kills and digs. The sophomore did her best work in the conference season, tallying all five of her double-doubles against league opponents. She had a career-high 19 kills to lead LIU in a must-win game on the road at CCSU.
• Hubbard was one of only two freshmen to earn All-NEC honors this season. A four-time NEC Rookie of the Week, Hubbard led the conference with a 9.41 assists per set average. That number jumped up to 10.62 assists per set in conference play. She finished the regular season with 847 assists, including 54 in a win over Robert Morris, the highest in-game total by any setter in the NEC this year.
DIG THIS
• Freshman libero
Natalia Rivera made a permanent mark in her first season with the Blackbirds.
• Rivera was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Week in October, for a record-breaking performance. The libero posted an astounding 48 digs against Saint Francis U a the five-set match win. The total set a new LIU program single-game record, and also broke a 12-year NEC single-match record formerly held by RMU's Darcy Thomas, who posted 45 digs against Akron on September 3, 2004.
• Rivera also matched the 2016 NCAA single-match season-high at the time, with Fort Wayne's Olivia Hahn notching 48 digs over five sets against Omaha on September 23.
• Despite missing eight games due to injury, she still ranks second in the NEC and 19th in the nation in digs per set this season, averaging 5.16.
SCOUTING THE NITTANY LIONS
• Ranked No. 13 in the AVCA's most recent poll, Penn State earned the No. 16 seed in the tournament, as the last seeded squad in the bracket. • The Nittany Lions, who have won six national championship titles in the last 10 years, are one of only two programs, along with Stanford, who have made every NCAA field since its beginning. But this year's PSU is not the dominant team of years past.
• Penn State enters the weekend with a 22-9 overall record, the most losses in a season for the program since 1987. The Nittany Lions finished fourth in the Big Ten, however, the strongest volleyball conference in the nation, and had a 15-match winning streak earlier this season, including a win over then-No. 1 Minnesota. Recently, however, PSU suffered losses at Ohio State and Nebraska, being swept by the Cornhuskers, 3-0. They capped the regular season on a three-match winning streak, beating Purdue, Northwestern and Illinois at home.
• Penn State saw four members of the team land postseason Big Ten honors, with juniors Simone Lee and Haleigh Washington both earning unanimous All-Big Ten honors, while freshmen Tori Gorrell and Kendall White made the All-Freshmen Team.
• PSU comes into the weekend as one of the most accurate teams in the nation, ranked fifth with a .290 team hitting percentage.
• Washington is a large reason why, as of the most consistent hitters in the college game. She leads Penn State and the Big Ten, and ranks second in the nation in hitting percentage, hitting .438. Washington also leads the team in blocks, with 124 total blocks this year, along with 265 total kills.
• Lee is also a hitter on the national level, as she's first in the Big Ten and 37th in the nation in kills per set, averaging 4.17.
REVISITING 2013
• The last time the Blackbirds came to Happy Valley, it was to take on eventual national champions in 2013.
• The LIU Brooklyn volleyball team played one of its best matches of the year in State College, Pa., against one of the best teams in the nation, in front of a home crowd of over 1,600 fans. Facing No. 2 overall seed Penn State, the Blackbirds didn't even blink, giving the Nittany Lions one of their tougher three set wins of the year. In the end, the host team took the win to advance, 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-14).
• The loss came in three sets, but the Blackbirds proved they belonged hitting with the big teams, taking 21 points off of the Nittany Lions in both set one and two. That was more points than Florida (18 & 17), Louisville (15 & 16), Ohio State (12 & 14), Minnesota (20 & 17), Indiana (16 & 11), Purdue (18 & 22), Michigan State (14 & 18), Iowa (8 & 8), Northwestern (17 & 15), Kentucky (10 & 8) Eastern Kentucky (10 & 8), Marquette (17 & 12), Syracuse (16 & 15) and Yale (16 & 17) scored against Penn State this season in the first two sets.
• The Blackbirds impressed Penn State's Hall Of Fame Coach, Russ Rose. "I like Long Island's team," Rose said in the post game press conference. "They play hard; there's a reason that they had the season that they had. Their kids play hard and they compete and they don't get rattled. Maybe it got away from them a little bit in the third game, but certainly the first two games were very close. They were competing and doing what they do at a high level."
ALL-TIME SERIES
• Penn State holds the 6-0 advantage in the all-time series against the Blackbirds, and has never lost a set to LIU.
• Four of those six losses for the Blackbirds have come in the NCAA Tournament. LIU has fallen to Penn State in the first round three times (2006, 2008 and 2013), and in the second round once (2005). All four losses were 3-0 defeats by the Nittany Lions.
• The two teams have only faced off twice in the regular season, both times at Rec Hall: 2008, in a season opening match, and in 2011, when LIU took part in the Penn State Classic. The Nittany Lions also won those matches 3-0.
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
• Dayton, ranked No. 23 in the nation, finished the year with the best record in NCAA Division I volleyball, at 30-1, and a perfect 14-0 in the Atlantic 10. Dayton's lone defeat came by way of sweep to Loyola Marymount.
• The Flyers are making their 12th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and their third-straight first round appearance at Penn State. The Flyers have advanced past the first round each of the last two seasons.
• Dayton last played on Nov. 20 in the finals of the Atlantic 10 Championship, as the Flyers defeated Saint Louis, 3-2, to earn the A-10's automatic bid to national post-season play.
They have won the A-10 Championship title a league-record 11 times.
• Through matches on Nov. 26, Dayton ranked in the top 10 nationally in three categories: first in match win-loss percentage (.968), seventh in assists/set (13.61), eighth in kills/set (14.50) and 10th in hitting percentage (.282).
• Individually, sophomore Kendyll Brown ranks third in the NCAA with a .438 hitting percentage, while junior Amber Erhahon is eighth, hitting .420 this season. Junior Jessica Sloan leads Dayton with 408 kills.
• The Flyers have two major A10 award winners on their roster: junior setter Jane Emmenecker, who was recently named the A-10 Setter of the Year for the third-consecutive season, and A10 Libero of the Year, Margo Wolf.
• Emmenecker averages 11.02 assists per set, the top average in the A10, and 25th in the NCAA, while Wolf averages 4.99 digs per set, second in the A10 and 36th in the nation.
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
• Pitt enters the tournament at 24-8 overall, and 15-5 in the ACC. They earned an at-large bid to national post-season play. This is the Panthers' first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2004 and the program's 14th overall.
• Pitt barrels into the NCAA tournament having won 10 of its last 11 matches, including victories over No. 8 North Carolina and RPI Top 50 Georgia Tech. During that stretch of games, Pitt surrendered only 10 sets and recorded five sweeps. The Panthers were a perfect 5-0 on the road during the late-season hot streak.
• Pitt is led by ACC Setter of the Year Kamalani Akeo, who averages 10.92 assists per set. Offensively, first-team All-ACC honoree Stephanie Williams leads the Panthers with a 3.78 kills per set average.
• Pitt had six All-ACC honorees, second most among ACC programs, trailing only North Carolina.