Volleyball Falls in Four at St. Francis
The Canisius College volleyball team wasn’t able to win the close sets on Sunday, losing in four sets at St. Francis (N.Y.) in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. The Golden Griffins lost 22-25, 25-7, 23-25, 27-29 and are now 1-3 on the season.
Sophomore Layne Adams recently sat down with GoGriffs.com to give us some insight on herself and the Canisius volleyball team.
1. Best thing about playing volleyball at Canisius?
The best thing is that our team is really close, maybe even a little too close. I know they always have my back and I always have their back. It’s a great feeling to have.
2. Hardest thing about playing volleyball for Canisius?
Being a college athlete in general forces you to sacrifice a lot. My friends and family might get mad that I don’t spend as much time with them but nothing beats training for a MAAC championship.
WALTHAM, Mass. — Senior libero Cassie Kraft (New Braunfels, Texas/St. Mark’s Hall) and junior setter Kelly Mee (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock North HS), members of the Bentley University women’s volleyball team, have been named to the Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic team.
Kelly Mee, Hali Stark, Kinsey and Kya Lynch, Layne Adams
Kelly Mee and Hali Stark (both class of 2007 co-captains) and Layne Adams (class of 2008 co-captain) with Kinsey Lynch and her daughter Kya on a recent visit.
Future setter Kya Lynch (class of 2027) prepares for ball handling drills.
photos courtesy of Lisa Stark
WALTHAM, Mass. — The Bentley University women’s volleyball team was represented on the NCAA Division II East Regional All-Tournament Team by senior middle hitter Kristine Mickelson (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch HS) and junior setter Kelly Mee (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock North HS).
Mickelson had nine kills in both of Bentley’s tournament matches, a 3-2 win over Adelphi University and a 3-0 loss to eventual regional champion Dowling. She hit .441 during the regional and also averaged 0.63 blocks.
Mickelson, for the season, averaged 1.75 kills and 1.04 blocks while hitting .279. The two-time All-Conference selection never missed a game in her career, finishing with 985 kills, 399 digs and 399 blocks.
Mee had 65 assists in the regional, an average of 8.1 per set. In the Falcons’ first-round win over Adelphi, she amassed 41 assists, nine digs, four kills, four blocks and an assist.
Mee finished the season fifth in the Northeast-10 in assists, averaging 9.2 in her first full season as Bentley’s setter. She hit .256, and also produced 1.06 kills, 1.35 digs and 0.41 blocks per set.
Bentley finished the 2009 season with an 18-13 record.
Joining Deats as a first-team All-Conference selection was outside hitter Paige Tanner, while earning second-team honors were setter Crystal Agnew and middle hitter Lindsay Palm, who was also recognized as conference Rookie of the Year.
The Blue Jays finished 20-10 overall and in second place in the Commonwealth Conference with a 6-1 record, and advanced to the conference championship match for the fourth straight season before falling in five sets to Lebanon Valley College.
A second-team All-Conference selection last season, Deats was second on the squad with 249 kills and was third on the team with 25 service aces. For her career, Deats ranks eighth in school history with 916 kills and is tied for seventh with 407 blocks.
Tanner, who was named first-team All-Conference for the second straight season and is a three-time All-Conference pick in her career, finished second in the conference with a team-high 334 kills and fourth in kills per set with an average of 3.09. She led the Blue Jays with 344 digs and finished her career ranked second in program history in both career kills (1,446) and digs (1,538).
Agnew led the Blue Jays and was second in the Commonwealth Conference with 923 assists (9.23 assists per set) while adding 68 kills and 260 digs. She ranks eighth in program history with 1,665 career assists and is second with a career average of 7.82 assists per set.
Palm became the first Elizabethtown player since Ashley Whitmarsh in 2004 to earn Commonwealth Rookie of the Year honors after ranking third in the league with a .294 hitting percentage on the strength of 206 kills. She also ranked third on the team with 56 blocks.
Conference champion Lebanon Valley took the other two major conference awards, as Joelle Snyder was named Player of the Year and Wayne Perry garnered Coach of the Year honors.
WALTHAM, Mass. — Six days after closing out the regular season with a 3-1 win over Le Moyne College on the road, the Bentley University women’s volleyball team will see the Dolphins again, this time in the opening round of the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs. This one will be played Friday at 5 pm at UMass-Lowell’s Costello Gymnasium.
Last week’s win secured the number three seed in the playoffs for the Falcons. A win in Friday’s opening round would propel Bentley into Saturday’s semifinals (2:00, also at UMass-Lowell) and give coach Sandy Hoffman her 700th career victory.
That’s a milestone that’s been achieved by only three active Division II coaches and only 23 coaches in collegiate women’s volleyball history. The winningest women’s volleyball coach in New England history, Hoffman has spent her entire head coaching career at Bentley, amassing a 28-year record of 699-306.
Bentley, the only institution that has been represented in all 29 Northeast-10 volleyball championships that have been held, enters the postseason with a 16-11 record after winning five of its last six matches overall and 10 of its last 13 matches against East Region competition.
In the match with Le Moyne last Saturday in Syracuse, Bentley dropped the opening set, 25-23, but came back to take the next three, 25-23, 25-20 and 25-21. Junior Kelly Mee (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock North HS), the NE-10 Setter of the Week, led the way, finishing with 43 assists, six blocks, five kills, four digs and two aces. Senior Alex Kearney (La Jolla, Calif./La Jolla HS) and junior Alaura Berry (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo HS) were regularly on the receiving end of her sets, with each making 11 kills.
Kearney, one of three remaining players from Bentley’s 2006 Northeast-10 championship team, enters the postseason 20 kills shy of Maria Vicens’ school record of 1,430. She leads the 2009 Falcons in that category, averaging 2.59.
The other seniors on the team are middle Kristine Mickelson (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch HS) and libero Cassie Kraft (New Braunfels, Texas/St. Mary’s Hall). Kraft is number two in Bentley history with 2,013 digs, and Mickelson’s 381 career blocks ranks seventh all-time.
Le Moyne, the sixth seed, enters the conference playoffs at 17-9 overall, but has been 7-7 since the first of October. Freshman Morgan McDermott has the NE-10′s best hitting percentage at .368, and senior Elizabeth Cheek recently became the program’s all-time leader in kills.
The Bentley-Le Moyne winner will be paired against the winner of the Adelphi-American International match in Saturday’s semis. The championship match will be played at UMass-Lowell Saturday evening at 7 pm.
Bentley remained fifth in this week’s NCAA Division II East Regional rankings, behind Dowling, New Haven, Bridgeport and Adelphi. Eight teams will be selected on Sunday for next week’s NCAA regional tournament.
WALTHAM, Mass. — Bentley University junior Kelly Mee (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock HS) has been named the Northeast-10 Conference Volleyball Setter of the Week for her outstanding performance in a pair of road matches last week.
Mee, in victories at Saint Rose and Le Moyne that secured the number three seed for Bentley in the upcoming conference playoffs, filled the stat sheet with averages of 10.43 assists, 1.29 blocks, 1.14 kills and 1.0 digs.
The six-footer amassed 30 assists, three blocks, three digs and three kills in a 3-0 sweep of Saint Rose, and accumulated 43 assists, six blocks, five kills, four digs and two aces in a 3-1 win at Le Moyne.
Mee is currently fifth in the Northeast-10 in assists, averaging 9.3, and amongst the conference’s setters, is tied for first in kills and is fourth in blocks. She’s averaged at least 10 assists per set in five of the team’s last seven matches after doing so only seven times in the season’s first 20 matches.
Bentley, 16-11, will take on Le Moyne College Friday at 5 pm in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 playoffs at UMass-Lowell.
ANNVILLE, Pa. — Lebanon Valley College won its second consecutive Commonwealth Conference volleyball championship on Saturday night, defeating Elizabethtown College 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-13) in the title match.
The Dutchmen (31-2 overall) earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament with their second five-set victory of the season over the Blue Jays (20-10 overall). It was the third consecutive meeting between the schools in the conference championship match, with Elizabethtown winning in 2007 and Lebanon Valley taking the crown in 2008.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Joelle Snyder finished with 19 kills and four blocks for the Dutchmen, while Emily Hopkins had a match-high 21 kills and Michelle Little added 15 kills and 11 digs.
Lindsay Palm recorded a season-high 16 kills for the Blue Jays, while Kayla Deats had 14 kills and 13 blocks and Holly Bubb added seven kills and 10 blocks. Crystal Agnew handed out 47 assists and added 15 digs and five blocks, while Andrea Weaver finished with a team-high 22 digs.
Emily Perkins posted 63 assists for the Flying Dutchmen and added nine digs, with Angela Kuperavage coming up with a match-high 26 digs.
In her final career match, Paige Tanner finished with 10 kills and 16 digs to conclude her four seasons at Elizabethtown with 1,446 kills and 1,538 digs, ranking her second in program history in both categories. Deats finishes eighth in program history in kills with 916 and tied for seventh in blocks with 407.
