Franklin & Marshall Selected to 2005 ECAC South Region Volleyball Championship Tournament

by Sports Information
11/7/05

LANCASTER, PA - The Franklin & Marshall College volleyball team secured its third Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament bid in program history as the Diplomats were selected as the #2 seed for the South Region Championship Tournament to be held on November 11-12 at #1 seed Lebanon Valley College.

The tournament will begin on November 11 at Lebanon Valley as #4 Richard Stockton (27-8) will take on #5 Johns Hopkins (23-6) at 4:00 p.m., while #3 Carnegie Mellon (19-18) will face #6 Washington & Jefferson (24-6) at 6:00 p.m.

On November 12, Lebanon Valley (26-6) will face the winner of the Stockton-Hopkins match at 11:00 a.m., before Franklin & Marshall (21-9, 8-2 Centennial Conference) will face the winner of the Carnegie Mellon-W&J match at 1:00 p.m. The championship match is set for a 4:00 p.m. start.

For F&M, which lost to Gettysburg College in the Centennial Conference Championship match 3-0 on November 6, by a 3-2 score, the bid marks the third in school history as the Diplomats previously earned a bid in 2002 and 2001 and fell in the first round both years.

In 2002, F&M fell 3-2 (31-29, 30-21, 27-30, 24-30, 17-15) to Westminster in the ECAC Tournament at Carnegie Mellon after falling 3-0 (30-28, 30-27, 30-26) to Grove City in the 2001 ECAC Tournament at Moravian College.

Overall, All-Centennial Conference second team setter Jackie Skibbie (Sr., Darby, PA/Merion Mercy) has recorded 1,099 assists, 114 kills, 293 digs and 26 blocks to lead the Diplomats.

For her career, she now has 3,514 assists as moved into second place on the career list at the College to surpass Jamie Cardman ’98 (3,465).

In addition, the Diplomats have rallied behind the play of outside hitter Margot Phelan (Fr., Ellicott City, MD/Centennial), All-Centennial Conference second team middle hitter Susan Taylor (So., The Woodlands, TX/John Cooper) and All-Conference honorable mention libero Meghan Godorov (Sr., Orefield, PA/Parkland).

The first player to earn All-Conference honors as a freshman since 2002, Phelan is the 14th player in Conference history to be named All-Conference as a freshman.

The first freshman player in F&M program history to earn All-Centennial Conference first team honors, Phelan is the CC leader in kills per game with 444 in 101 games for an average of 4.4 per game. Taylor has added 383 kills. 49 digs and 87 blocks (51 solo, 36 assist) in 104 games, while Godorov leads the team’s defensive efforts with 552 digs in 103 games.

Directions to Lebanon Valley College are available online at http://www.lvc.edu/about-lvc/directions.aspx

2005 ECAC Volleyball Division III South Region Championship
First-Round Matches – Friday, Nov. 11
Match #1 – #4 Richard Stockton (27-8) vs. #5 Johns Hopkins (23-6), 4 p.m.
Match #2 – #3 Carnegie Mellon (19-18) vs. #6 Washington & Jefferson (24-6), 6 p.m.
Semifinals – Saturday, Nov. 12
Match #3 - #1 Lebanon Valley (26-6) vs. Winner of Game #1, 11 a.m.
Mach #4 – # 2 Franklin & Marshall (21-9) vs. Winner of Game #2, 1 p.m.
Championship – Saturday, Nov. 12
Semifinal Winners, 4 p.m.