ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College volleyball program has been there before.
And Sunshine State Conference and regional coach of the year favorite Courtney Draper has taken them each time in the program's history spanning her current eight-year reign. Five times in fact.
The second-seeded Tritons have reached the pinnacle of the long regular season by making it to the NCAA Tournament South Regional, but the surrounding aura is an unquestioned feeling this team is built for the long haul.
EC and Christian Brothers (Tenn.) University will meet in a No. 2/7 seed matchup tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the University of Tampa's Bob Martinez Center. The squad traveled to Tampa this evening for a well-deserved team meal and a chance to soak in the championship experience together.
“I don't think the nerves are there because we've seen each team in our regional (with the exception of Kentucky State University),” Draper said. “We build our schedule around the fact that we want to play the best talent in our region. We had a very strong week of practice and I think we're still getting stronger every day.”
A few first-round exits have dotted the Tritons' history on the national stage, but Eckerd has been the No. 4 or No. 5 seed every year. Eckerd flipped the script this year as a bracket favorite with a 25-4 overall record (13-3 in SSC play) and enter the postseason having won 16 of their 17 matches.
The seventh-seeded Bucs from Christian Brothers are making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. As a No. 3 seed, CBU was bounced in the opening round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament, upset by No. 6-seeded University of Alabama-Huntsville.
The Tritons edged the Bucs in their lone previous meeting this year at the University of West Florida Crossover in Pensacola, Fla.
In the event of an Eckerd win tomorrow, a fan bus sponsored by the athletics department and ECOS will be available to Eckerd students for Friday's match scheduled to get underway at 5 p.m. If the Tritons can beat CBU, they will advance to face the victor of the No. 3 Rollins College and No. 6 University of North Alabama.
As a site host, the University of Tampa will be providing live coverage of the event with video and live stats on its athletics website,
www.tampaspartans.com. EckerdTritons.com will feature a live blog of the event going live about 15 minutes prior to the start.
