BROOKLYN, N.Y.— The LIU Brooklyn volleyball team ends the regular season with one last weekend on the road against Bryant and CCSU. The Blackbirds open the weekend with a 6:00 p.m. first serve on Friday, November 9 against the Bulldogs before ending the weekend with a 4:00 p.m. match on Saturday versus the Blue Devils.
PLAYOFF PUSH
All four spots in the NEC Women's Volleyball Tournament have been clinched as Bryant, CCSU and Sacred Heart secured a berth to join the Blackbirds in field. The tournament host for next weekend's championship will be decided this weekend. LIU remains in the driver's seat with an 11-1 record and two games remaining, a win Friday night would undoubtedly secure home court advantage. For NEC tie breaker scenarios, visit the league's website. (LINK).
LAST TIME OUT
The Blackbirds battled back from a first-set setback to beat St. Francis Brooklyn 3-1 last Friday afternoon. Redshirt-junior Julia Azevedo led the Blackbirds with a season-high 17 kills and .424 hitting percentage. Junior Filippa Hansson also contributed double-digit kills with 11 on the day. Defensively, junior Katharina Krepper tallied a game-high five blocks while junior Natalia Rivera picked up a game-high 20 digs.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Bryant enters the weekend right on the Blackbirds heels with a 10-2 league mark. They have won their last seven games against NEC foes and boast a 8-3 record at the Chace Center this season.
The Bulldogs are the leagues top offense with 13.56 kills per set on the season and 12.73 assists per set and rank as the statistical leaders in NCAA Division I in both team kills and total team attacks.
Bryant has three players ranked in the top-10 in the NEC in kills per set, Julia Flynn (4th-3.29), Caroline Kennedy (6th-2.98) and Kristen Kingi (9th-2.70). Kirstyn Sperry ranks fourth in the conference in assists at 7.59 assists per game and Erika Ward ranks fourth in digs per set with a 4.31 mark.
LIU took the earlier meeting over Bryant with a four-set win on September 28 at the Steinberg Center. The Blackbirds were paced by double-digit kills from Azevedo, senior Viktoria Fink and junior Kora Schaberl. Sophomore Piper Matsumoto dished out a game-high 45 assists and Rivera recorded 33 digs.
SCOUTING THE BLUE DEVILS
CCSU comes into the weekend in third in the league standings with a 8-4 record. The Blue Devils are coming off a weekend split, sweeping FDU before getting swept by Sacred Heart.
This season, CCSU has been the NEC's top team at the net, earning 2.42 blocks per set. They also rank second in the NEC with an opponent hitting percentage of .172. Middle blocker Gala Galabova leads the conference with 1.21 blocks per set. Madelyn Kaprelyn is the team's leading all-around player, ranking second in the country with four double-doubles on the year. She ranks fourth in the NE with a .291 hitting percentage and fifth in kills per set with 3.22.
In the first meeting of the season LIU rallied to earn a 3-1 win at the Steinberg Center on September 29. Fink led the Blackbirds with 20 kills in the match as three players tallied double digit kills. Junior Amanda Hubbard picked up 42 assists for LIU. A strong match defensively as three players recorded double-digit digs with Rivera leading the way with 29 digs. The Blackbirds out blocked CCSU 12-7 in the matchup as Azevedo tallied a season-high seven blocks.
UP NEXT
The Blackbirds will play out the weekend to determine where the Northeast Conference Championship will be. The Tournament will run Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17 at the highest seed.