Volleyball Advances to Postseason With Bid to ECAC Tournament

The Behrend Lions will continue their season in the ECAC South Region Tournament.  The blue and white enter the tournament as a three seed and will host the six seed Washington and Jefferson Presidents on Wednesday, November 12, at 7:00 p.m. in the Junker Center.

Behrend will be making its second-ever appearance in the ECAC Tournament. In 2006, the blue and white won a school-record 29 matches and went 2-1 in the ECAC South Championship to finish as the runners-up.

Head coach Phil Pisano said, "We are happy to still be playing and thankful that others have recognized what we have accomplished over the course of the season.  It looks like an outstanding field of teams and it should be a very exciting tournament.  W & J has played a great schedule and we expect them to be well prepared on Wednesday."

In other first-round contests number one seed Stevenson (31-7) will host eighth seed SUNY IT (21-11) while second seed Widener (25-9) will host seven seed City College of New York (23-12), and four seed Cabrini (20-13) will host FDU-Florham (21-14).

The Behrend Lions enter the match at 22-9 on the year and the 2008 AMCC regular season champions.  The blue and white offense is led by junior setter Brooke Gallentine (Mt. Pleasant/Southmoreland) who has tallied 936 assists on the year averaging 8.91 assists per game.  Reaping the benefits are Gallentine's hitters including the team's kills leader in junior Sheila Ogden (Grove City/Grove City) who has accumulated 268 kills with a .243 hitting percentage.  Second on the team is freshman Lauren Dalton (Cochranton/Cochranton) has swung well with a .224 hitting percentage with 252 kills. 

Defensively Behrend is led by freshman Stefanie Kelley (Moon Township/Moon) who has dug 369 balls in 101 games played.  Also pitching in on the defensive side is freshman Liz Emerick (Hopewell/Hopewell) with 326 digs and senior Brittany Hennessy (Hopewell/Hopewell) who has 319 digs on the year.

Washington and Jefferson comes into the contest at 17-14 overall.  In their last match the Presidents fell by a 3-1 score to eventual runner up Thomas More College in the PAC semifinals.  Monika Linden leads the Presidents on the attacking end. Linden swings with a .297 rate with 276 kills in 30 matches played.  Running the offense is Mia Serine who has dished out 797 assists averaging 7.66 assist per game.  Adding to the attack is Courtney Sherwin with 258 kills and Samantha Butler with 202 kills.  On the defensive side the Presidents are led by Nellica Davis who has contributed 430 digs on the year, while Courtney Holdrieth who has chipped in 267 digs. 

The winner of the first-round matches on Wednesday will move on to the semifinals and finals on November 15 and 16 hosted by the highest remaining seed excluding Behrend and Cabrini.