FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Friday, Nov. 9, 2001)
The Wesleyan women's volleyball team, which ended the year with a 29-5 regular-season record and finished second to champion Williams College in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) tournament, received one of 13 at-large berths to the NCAA Division III tournament. Thirty-five teams received automatic bids to the NCAAs by winning their conference tournament or regular-season title. Williams was the NESCAC's automatic qualifier.
The tournament is divided into eight regions. Wesleyan played in the New England region, hosted by top-seeded Wellesley College. Wellesley (24-4) and Williams (28-3), seeded second, received first-round byes in the six-team field. Wesleyan seeded third, played sixth-seeded Western Connecticut State U. (22-11) Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. with Wesleyan winning, 3-1. Prior to that, fourth-seeded Bridgewater St. (31-5) played fifth-seeded Gordon (25-9) at 5 p.m., and Gordon came away with a 3-1 victory. The semi-finals, played Friday, saw Williams defeat Wesleyan, 3-2, in a 5 p.m. match and Wellesley upend Gordon, 3-0, at 7:30 p.m. The regional final played at 7 p.m. Saturday saw Wellesley get by Williams, 3-2. Wellesley, the regional champion, advanced to the national quarter-finals to be played Nov. 17 (the New England titlist plays the New York region titlist Nazareth) and the national semi-finals and finals will be played Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, respectively.
Wesleyan made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Wellesley has been to six NCAAs, including the last six and has won five straight regional titles. Western Conn. made its third straight appearance as champion of the Little East conference. Wesleyan hosted Western Conn. Oct. 17, winning 3-1 (30-25, 30-26, 29-31, 30-17). Williams and Wesleyan met three other times this year. Wesleyan won the first meeting Oct. 5 in Middletown, 3-2, while Williams has won the last two, 3-0 on Oct. 27 at Amherst in the Little Three matches, and 3-2 two days ago in the NESCAC title match at Middlebury.
Wesleyan set numerous team marks, on both the team and individual level, this year. Most prominent among them are the 30 wins (breaking the mark of 27 set last year) and an 18-match win streak, breaking the mark of 16 set in 1989. Individually, Wesleyan was led by the hitting of junior Eliza Allen (team-record 595 kills and 39.5 hitting percentage). Senior Alexis Keeler is the Wesleyan career leader for kills (1,505), digs (1,239) and service aces (361) while also holding the seasonal mark for aces (144 this year). Allen is the career (473) and seasonal (173 in 2001) leader for blocks at Wesleyan. Senior setter Christina Fucci is the single-season (1,512 in 2000) and career (4,350) leader in assists. In the final 2001 NESCAC rankings, Allen is first in kills (4.61/game) and second in blocks (1.34/game) while Keeler is fifth in kills (4.25/game) and ninth in blocks (0.81/game). Fucci is second in assists (11.62/game) and senior Laura Cox, who led the team in digs, is eighth in that department (3.58/game). She set the team's single-season record a year ago with 536.
Head coach Gale Lackey, who finished her 17th year at Wesleyan and 18th overall as a head volleyball coach, celebrated her 300th career win Oct. 25 when Wesleyan defeated Mount Holyoke. She is now 304-259 for her career, 291-246 at Wesleyan. She was named NESCAC coach of the year. Individual player honors included NESCAC player of the year, first-team NESCAC all-star, first-team NEWVA all-star, Verizon/CoSIDA District I academic All-American and AVCA New England regional all-star honors for Keeler ; NESCAC first-team all-star, second-team NEWVA all-star and AVCA regional all-star honors for Allen ; and NESCAC second-team all-star, NEWVA honorable mention and AVCA regional all-star recognition for Fucci.