Women's Volleyball Earns #2 Seed in ECAC South Championships

by Sports Information
11/6/01

LANCASTER, PA --- For the first time since 1990, Franklin & Marshall College has accepted a bid to the Eastern College Athletic Conference South Volleyball Championship playoff tournament. The Diplomats, seeded second in the six-team tournament, will travel to first seed Moravian College's Johnston Hall on Friday and Saturday, November 9th & 10th.

Moravian (24-8) and Franklin & Marshall College (22-10) receive first round byes and will begin play on Saturday. In the first-round number three seed, Johns Hopkins University (16-14) will face number six seed Grove City College (19-11) at 4 p.m. on Friday while number four seed, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark (17-8) will face Lebanon Valley College (22-11) at 6 p.m. The winners will advance to the semifinals where Moravian will face the winner of Rutgers-Newark-Lebanon Valley at 1 p.m. and Franklin and Marshall will meet the winner of Johns Hopkins-Grove City College at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The semifinal winners will play for the championship at 7 p.m.

For F&M and Moravian, the ECAC Tournament will mean a possible rematch of the final game of the Elizabethtown Halloween Tournament in which the Greyhounds knocked off the Diplomats 3-1 (32-30, 30-22, 24-30, 30-25), but F&M claimed the tournament title based on an overall better record in pool play.

Franklin & Marshall missed out on the Centennial Conference Tournament after there was a five-way tie for first place late in the season. Junior outside hitter Heidi Goedicke (Spring Church, PA/Elderton) leads the Diplomats with 346 kills and 481 digs while senior middle hitter Emily Green (Woodstock, CT/Woodstock Academy) has 301 kills, 450 digs and 74 service aces.

Green, the all-time leader in F&M history with 261 service aces, is the only active player and just the second player in F&M history to rank among the career top 10 at the College in kills (831, 7th), digs (1234, 6th), blocks (166, 6th) and assists (241, 6th).

Sophomore setter Jennifer Grue (So., Canton, PA/Canton) has 1,263 assists on the season, while junior outside hitter Kristen Kowalski (Jr., York, PA/Central York) has 335 kills. Freshman middle hitter/outside hitter Elizabeth Earll (Fr., New Freedom, PA/Susquehannock) has contributed 421 digs while junior middle hitter Rose Hartmann (Jr., Warminster, PA/William Tennent) has 203 kills.

F&M's selection marks the sixth straight season that they have advanced to the post-season as the 1993, 1994, 1999 and 2000 Centennial Conference Champions appeared in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III playoffs in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Moravian has won over 20 matches each of the last six seasons and are coming off a runner-up finish in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs for the sixth straight year. Moravian has made three NCAA Tournament appearances and this is the sixth consecutive year the Greyhounds have competed in the postseason.

Sophomore middle hitter Kim Zipf leads the Greyhounds in hitting with 410 kills and 388 digs. Zipf was named to the All-Tournament Teams at the Messiah College Tournament, the Gettysburg Battlefield Classic and the Elizabethtown Halloween Classic.

Sophomore setter Amy Lawrence was also named to the All-Tournament Teams at Messiah, Gettysburg and Elizabethtown as well as at the Western Maryland Tournament. Lawrence runs the Greyhound offense with 1,210 assists. Lawrence also has 63 service aces, 330 digs, 22 blocks and 87 kills.

Johns Hopkins enters the weekend after losing in the Centennial Conference semifinals. Senior outside hitter Emily Miller, who has 393 kills, 428 digs, 46 blocks and 46 service aces, leads the Blue Jays. Junior middle hitter Elisabeth Breese had added 337 kills and 96 blocks while junior middle hitter Sarah Payne has 205 kills and 54 blocks. Freshman setter Betsy Baydala leads Johns Hopkins with 884 assists and she has added 394 digs, 127 kills and 84 service aces while freshman outside hitter Betsy Farmer has 117 kills and 101 digs.
Rutgers-Newark fell to Kean University in the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament in its last action. The Scarlet Raiders are led by freshman outside hitter Robin Pearce, who had 376 kills, 273 digs, 32 blocks and 61 service aces. Junior outside hitter Domini Lanzone has contributed 359 kills with 187 digs, 47 blocks and 50 service aces while junior defensive specialist/outside hitter Kristen Endow has 160 kills, 211 digs and 31 service aces. Freshman setter Alison Marino has 739 assists on the season with 1642 digs while freshman middle blocker Kaitlin Kohl has 64 blocks

Lebanon Valley was knocked out of the Commonwealth Conference Tournament by 21-time champion Juniata College. Freshman middle hitter Amanda Bahn, who has 331 kills, 192 digs, 94 blocks and 55 service aces, leads the Flying Dutchmen. Sophomore middle hitter/outside hitter Sherri Pursel has 243 kills and 309 digs while sophomore outside hitter Danelle McCusker has added 171 kills and 266 digs. Junior setter Kelly Kauffman has 1,134 assists to go along with 285 digs and 88 kills while junior middle hitter Steph George has added 210 kills.

Grove City will enter the ECAC Championship after winning the President’s Athletic Conference Tournament. The Wolverines are led by senior middle hitter Sarah Gardner, who had 341 kills, 456 digs and 110 blocks this season, and junior middle hitter Katie Summers, who had contributed 339 kills, 391 digs and 126 blocks. Junior setter Cara Denniston runs the Grove City offense with 1,115 assists and she has 67 service aces and 344 digs while senior outside hitter Julie Porter had 263 kills, 497 digs and 49 service aces.