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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – With lofty aspirations in mind, the Eckerd College volleyball program is primed to make another storied postseason run beginning tomorrow in the opening round of the NCAA Championship South Regional in Tampa.
The fourth-seeded Tritons will take the floor on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the renovated Martinez Center against No. 5 seed and Sunshine State Conference rival Florida Southern College.
The winner in the No. 4/5 opening-round matchup advances to the second round on Friday at 7:30 p.m. to meet either No. 1 seed/region host University of Tampa or No. 8 Clark Atlanta (Ga.) University.
The Tritons have assembled a very impressive 21-9 record (12-4 SSC) in the regular season with another runner-up finish in the Sunshine State Conference regular season standings.
With the program making its sixth appearance in the national tournament in the last seven years, there's no doubt a battle-tested group will hit the court tomorrow ready to go.
Amidst a flurry of conference and regional postseason recognition, this Eckerd squad is ready to make its presence felt in the bracket.
“We have the intention of going out there and making history one more time for Eckerd,” exclaimed senior middle
Alex Laton, making the third NCAA trip in her four-year career. “Our coaching staff has done an unbelievable job preparing us and I believe, as a team, we've reached a level we want to achieve and it's going to be a fight.”
“It's been about two weeks since we've played competitively,” chimed in junior setter
Madison Burr. “We've had some really good practices this week and we're really excited to play tomorrow.”
EC and FSC finished the season with a split in two meetings this season, with each program winning on their respective home court.
The Mocs finished 21-11 overall and are headlined by a number of all-conference performers, including first teamer Ali Skayhan at the setter position.
In addition, dangerous outsides Anne Pietkiewicz and Kate Stromberg garnered second-team league mention, while middle Kayshia Brady was picked as both the SSC Newcomer and Freshman of the Year.
Sophomore
Ali McAlvany crashed the All-SSC First Team and was named to the AVCA All-South Region Team. Junior
Lindsay Biggs earned both of those distinctions in addition to Daktronics Second-Team All-Region honors.
Freshman
Emily Schadow was picked to the SSC All-Newcomer Team and junior
Kaleigh Humphrey was tabbed Second Team All-SSC at the libero position.
The Tritons scheduled to depart town today around 5:45 p.m. before enjoying a team meal at Olive Garden later this evening.
Live stats and video feeds are available through the University of Tampa athletics website at TampaSpartans.com. Additional links have been posted to the volleyball sport page on EckerdTritons.com.
EckerdTritons.com will be courtside to cover all the action. Follow our Twitter account @ECTritons or track our Facebook page,
www.facebook.com/eckerdtritons.com for additional coverage.
