Women's Volleyball vs. MIT - NCAA Game Preview

(Nashua, N.H) The NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Committee announced Monday the field of 64 teams for the 2014 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.

The Rivier University Women's Volleyball team will making the program's sixth trip to the National Tournament after earning an automatic bid as the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.

The Raiders were selected into the Williamstown, Massachusetts Regional hosted by Williams College. Rivier will matchup against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the first round of the regional. The other six teams in the regional are Babson College, Bowdoin College, Colby-Sawyer College, Regis College (MA), Sage Colleges and the hosts - Williams College.

The complete NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship Bracket can be found here: http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/volleyball-women/d3/2014

The Raiders (28-6) will be the sixth seed when they enter their first round matchup with the third seeded Engineers (27-5). The game is scheduled to begin on Friday afternoon at 12:30 pm. The winner will move on to play against the winner of New England Collegiate Conference Champion Regis College (Mass.) and Bowdoin College, who received an at-large bid to the dance.

How they got here:

Rivier secured their second consecutive appearance in the National Tournament by winning the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament. As the No. 2 seed, the Raiders blanked No. 7 Anna Maria College (25-13, 25-14, 25-7) in the quarterfinals before topping No. 3 Simmons College (25-17, 25-12, 24-26, 25-13) in the semifinals. Rivier was able to defend their GNAC crown by fighting off No. 4 Johnson and Wales University (25-22, 22-25, 25-23, 25-16) in the Championship game inside the Muldoon Gymnasium.

MIT returns to the national scene for the second time in three years after advancing to the finals of the NEWMAC Championship Tournament this past weekend. As the No. 1 seed, the Engineers swept No. 5 Wellesley College, 25-13, 25-17, 25-23, in the semifinals but fell to No. 2 Babson College, 25-23, 22-25, 25-23, 25-16 in the Championship match.

Who to watch – Rivier University:

With five individuals recording at least 100 kills this season, the Raiders feature one of the most balanced offensive attacks in the Regional. Sophomore Dana Mott (Medway, Mass.) leads the team with 315 kills while classmate Molly McCormack (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) contributed 304 kills. Sophomore Lauren Silverman (Chelmsford, Mass.) had a tremendous campaign as she totaled 256 kills and 93 blocks, 35 of which were block solos, in 2014. Junior Jackie Pisecco (Chelmsford, Mass.) and sophomore Chelsey Hussey (Lebanon, Conn.) added 178 and 124 kills, respectively.

The team leader is without a doubt junior Emily O'Reilly (San Francisco, Calif.). The third year setter has already netted over 3,000 assists in her career with 1,115 of them this season. O'Reilly was named the GNAC Tournament MVP as she directed the balance offensive attack for the Raiders.

As one of the few teams in the country without a senior on the roster, Rivier has gotten a huge contribution from freshman libero Bethany Trevino (Westminster, Colo.). The first year defensive specialist led the team with 486 digs and a digs per set average of 4.34.

Who to Watch – Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

The Engineers feature the two of the top three kills per set leaders in the NEWMAC, including sophomore Meghan Gebhard (Howell, Mich.) and senior Jenny Astrachan (Austin, Texas). Gebhard leads the conference and team with 438 kills and a .409 kills per set average. Astrachan is right behind her with a 3.40 kills per set and 367 kills. Senior Nicole Gagnier (Atlanta, Ga.) finished with a 10.58 assists per set average, 1,206 total assists in 2014.

Defensively the team is led by sophomore Tori Wuthrich (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) who collected 429 digs and a 3.86 digs per set average. Freshman Alli Davanzo (St. Johns, Fla.) was second in the conference with a .328 hitting percentage and she also leads the team with 76 total blocks.

Tenure at the Top:

Head Coach Craig Kolek is in the midst of his 16th season at the helm of the Rivier University Women's Volleyball program and ranks as one of the winningest (339-167) and most successful coaches in New England. Kolek has been the main reason why his teams have competed for a GNAC Championship every season. Since he was named Head Coach in 1999, the Women's Volleyball program has made 15 consecutive appearances in the GNAC Tournament (did not make the postseason in 1999) and 11 appearances in the GNAC Championship Game. This will be his fifth NCAA Tournament Appearance (six total) since his first trip in 2003.

On the other side of the court is another longtime Head Coach, MIT's Paul Dill. Dill has been the man in charge for the Engineers since 1996 and has accumulated over 500 career wins. He is currently 504-175 with eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including this season. Dill is also one of five New England Women's Volleyball Coaches to reach the 500+ win plateau as he won game #500 on October 21st at home against Babson College.

The last time Rivier met MIT:

The last time these two programs squared off was on October 19, 2013 at the Rockwell Cage in Cambridge, Mass. The Engineers topped the Raiders in three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-21 and 25-19.

Freshman McCormack was the offensive star for Rivier as she recorded a .310 hitting percentage with 11 kills. 2014 graduate Nicole Peacock (Warwick, R.I.) added 10 kills while Silverman chipped in with 6 kills. O'Reilly had 29 assists to go along with 7 digs. 2014 graduate Jessica Amaral (East Providence, R.I.) added another 8 digs in the loss.

MIT was paced by the duo of Gebhard and Tatiana Berger '14 who totaled 26 kills (14 and 12 respectively). Gagnier was outstanding along the net with 41 assists and Wuthrich had 13 digs.

Historical Data:

Rivier is currently 0-5 in the history of the matchup with MIT. The first match up between the two programs came on October 8, 2009 at MIT and the latest was on October 19, 2013 – also at MIT. This will be the third neutral site competition in the series as they were at Clark University in 2010 and at Regis College for the 2013 season opener. The Engineers own a 15-3 set advantage in the five meetings to date.