POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Liberty League Women's Volleyball Championship field is complete as the Vassar College Women's Volleyball team has been seeded fifth and will travel to fourth-seeded RIT (15-16, 5-3) for a first round matchup on Tuesday evening at 5:00 p.m. The Brewers concluded the regular season at 4-20 overall while being 3-5 in conference action.
Vassar is led by sophomore Hailey Hayes (Canyon Lake, TX), who has tallied 191 kills, 17 service aces, 19 blocks and added 167 digs. Freshman Molly Delahunty (Newton, MA) is second on the team in kills with 142 and leads the team in aces with 30. Sophomore Julia Hale (Hillsborough, CA) is the team leader in blocks with 32 while freshman Rebecca Gutierrez is second with 29. Freshman Melia Voss (Marietta, GA) has handed out 464 assists this season and has added 17 aces while junior Maya Levine (Granby, MA) leads the team in digs with 275 and is second on the squad in service aces with 22.
SCOUTING RIT: The Tigers are led by the conference leader in kills, Liv Benard, as she has tallied 411 kills on the season.
She is also second on the team in aces (42), digs (244) and has added 41 blocks. Samantha Cox is second in kills with 266 while Hailey Blixt leads the conference in aces with 71. Calista Gasper is the team leader in blocks with 67 and four other players have 50 or more blocks on the season. Blixt also leads the team in digs with 310 and Sydney Neff is the team leader in assists with 910.
REGULAR SEASON MATCHUP: RIT defeated Vassar in straight sets in Rochester 17-25, 6-25, 18-25 on October 22. Hayes finished with a team-high five kills while also adding two blocks. Delahunty added three kills along with four digs for the Brewers. Hale had a team-high three blocks while sophomore Molly Ardren (Essex, VT) handed out 12 assists. Freshman
Noa McCrane (Los Angeles, CA) lifted eight digs to lead Vassar.
Benard finished the day with 16 kills while adding two aces and two blocks. Gasper finished with eight kills and five blocks for the Tigers while Corie Beale knocked down five service aces. Neff handed out a game-high 38 assists while Blixt lifted eight digs.
HOW TO FOLLOW: Tuesday's contest with RIT will have live video as well as live stats available for those who are unable to attend.
CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD: The Ithaca Bombers earned the top seed as they went 22-4 on the season and a perfect 8-0 in conference play while Clarkson (15-10, 7-1) will be the two seed and have a first-round bye. Third-seeded William Smith (16-5, 6-2) will play host to sixth-seeded Union (12-14, 2-6) on Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. while fourth-seeded RIT and fifth-seeded Vassar will take the court in Rochester at 5:00 p.m.
Ithaca will play host to the winner of the 3/6 matchup on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. while Clarkson will take on the winner of the 4/5 matchup at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The winners of the semifinal contest will play for the conference championship on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the Ben Light Gymnasium at Ithaca.