Friday, November 18, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The semifinals of the 2011 Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship are set for play on Friday between third-seeded FGCU and No. 2 seed and host school Lipscomb at 5 p.m. CT and No. 5 seed ETSU and top-seeded Belmont at 7:30 p.m.

Lipscomb defeated FGCU, 3-1, Oct. 22nd in the only meeting of the season between the two teams. Belmont captured two wins against ETSU during the regular season (3-1; 3-0).

The winners of today's matches advance to the championship final non Saturday at 3 p.m. CT

All matches of the 2011 A-Sun Volleyball Championship are broadcasted for free on ASun.TV.

• Lipscomb’s 44-match A-Sun wins streak was snapped this season by Belmont on Oct. 25th. The streak was the longest in conference history and ranked third amongst active streaks in the nation.
• Lipscomb has won the past two championships. The last team to win three A-Sun titles in a row was UCF from 2001-03.
• The Lady Bisons are 16-3 in their past 19 matches, but have dropped three of the last five matches entering the championship.
• Senior Katie Rose earned a share of the A-Sun Player of the Year honor. She ranked in the top-ten of the A-Sun in hitting percentage (.346; 2nd), kills/set (3.18; 7th), blocks/set (.78; 9th) and points/set (3.96; 5th).
• Junior Kaycee Green ranks 5th-most amongst active A-Sun players with 875 career kills. She has 293 this season.
• The last host school to claim the A-Sun Championsip was Belmont in 2006. The host school has only captured four of the last 14 A-Sun titles.
• Lipscomb has appeared in the past four A-Sun Finals.• FGCU is making their second-ever appearance in the A-Sun Championship. In their first appearance in 2009, the Eagles advanced to the Championship Final as a three-seed in Fort Myers.
  
• FGCU advances to its second A-Sun Semifinal in the past three seasons. In 2009, the third-seeded Eagles defeated No. 2 Jacksonville 3-0 to advance to the finals.
• In four of the last six championships, the three seed has reached the championship final, but has not won the title since FAU in 1999.
• The Eagles are 5-2 in their last seven matches.
• The last team to reach the finals after missing the previous year’s championship was ETSU last season. No team has ever won the title after missing the previous year.
• In the regular season, Lipscomb defeated the Eagles, 3-1, in Allen Arena. Lipscomb owns the all-time series advantage at 7-2. FGCU’s two wins against the Lady Bisons both came in 2008.
• Freshman of the Year Jill Hopper led all freshman with 371 kills and ranked seventh in the A-Sun for points/set with 3.73.
• Senior Holly Youngquist now ranks fourth all-time in the A-Sun for career digs with 1,652. She passed Mercer’s duo of Katie Plummer (2001-04) and Claire Tucker (2005-08) in the win vs. UNF.

• The Bruins are 14-2 since Sept. 13th. Their only losses came to Lipscomb (Oct. 6) and FGCU (Oct. 21).
• The share of the regular-season conference title was Belmont’s first A-Sun Conference title in program history.
• Belmont’s Maggie Johnson earned a share of the Player of the Year honor. Only one other Bruin (Colleen Nilson; 2006) has ever won the award.
• Head Coach Deane Webb won his third A-Sun Coach of the Year honor with Belmont. He previously won in 2004 and 2006.
• Johnson is third all-time in the A-Sun for career kills. The senior outside hitter has tallied 1,531 kills, which is only 21 away from tying former Bruin Lindsay Cleveland (2002-05) for second.
• Sophomore Jen Myer has 125 aces in her career, which ranks her in seventh place for career aces in the A-Sun after two seasons. This year, Myer has 83 services aces, which is six away from breaking the A-Sun single-season record held by FGCU’s Ana Kokanovich.
• Belmont has appeared in four of the last seven A-Sun Finals.
• Five-seeds are 3-14 all-time in the A-Sun Championship under the current tournament format. ETSU owns two of those wins. The only time a five-seed has reached the championship final was 1991 (Stetson) in round-robin format.
• On 12 occassions, the runner-up from the previous year’s championship has returned to the championship final. Four times the runner-up has won the following year’s title.
• Senior Jamie Stancliff leads all active A-Sun players with 325 career blocks. She is eight away from tying for 10th in the A-Sun for career blocks.
• The Bruins swept ETSU in the regular season with a 3-1 win in Nashville and 3-0 sweep in Johnson City. The Lady Bucs defeated the Bruins, 3-2, last season in Johnson City.
• Sophomore Megan Devine recorded 485 kills this season, which ranks second-most in the A-Sun. Her 845 career kills is seventh-most amongst active players. She is three away from sixth-most.
• Kiley Tamblyn has 1000 career digs, which makes her one of seven in the A-Sun to reach that mark.

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