SCHENECTADY, NY -- The Union College volleyball team will head to Clarkson this weekend for the 2015 Liberty League Volleyball Tournament. This is the third straight season that the Golden Knights are the top seed and thus will host the tournament.
Clarkson (25-8 overall, 12-0 Liberty League), ranked #19 in the AVCA Coaches' Poll, will take on fourth-seeded RIT (21-18, 7-5) in the first match at 5:00 pm Friday at Alumni Gymnasium in Potsdam, while the second match will pit second-seeded Union College (28-5, 9-3) against third-seed St. Lawrence University (17-17, 7-5) at 7:30 pm on Friday. The championship will be played at 4:00 pm on Saturday by the winners of the two Friday matches.
Second-seeded Union fell to Clarkson in four sets twice this year, and that has been the result in five of the last eight meetings since the start of the 2013 season. Union's only losses in the Liberty League came to Clarkson and Vassar, while the Dutchwomen swept both St. Lawrence and RIT. Union is hitting .196 overall and is a tick better in conference, and the team possesses the best block in the league, averaging 1.84 denials per set. The Dutchwomen also own a balanced offense with several quality options in
Lauren Woods (.285 hitting percentage),
Morgan Clark (.276 hitting percentage),
Rachel Wyman (.265 hitting percentage, 3.30 kills per set), and
Kelley White (2.54 kills per set).
Amanda Price is the team's setter and averaging 9.32 assists per set.
St. Lawrence comes into the tournament as the third seed after winning the tie-breaker against RIT. The Saints have the second-best hitting percentage in the conference at .202 and that number dips to just .186 in conference matches. Senior Cristina Deschaine leads the team in hitting percentage (.257) and blocks per set (0.91) while Lexi Brown is hitting .247 with a team-best 2.91 kills per set. Katie Kull is averaging 8.17 assists per set and Mariah Dignan is the top libero, according to digs, still playing, averaging 4.65 per set. St. Lawrence has three of the top six block leaders on its roster in Deschaine, Maddy Ruehl (0.54), and Brown (0.47).
