UAA Championship Site
CLEVELAND, Ohio – With a fourth-straight 20-plus win season already in the books, the Case Western Reserve University volleyball team now sets its sights on a strong performance at the prestigious University Athletic Association Championship Tournament coming up this weekend on Friday and Saturday, November 4-5, at the Jerome S. Coles Sports & Recreation Center in New York, N.Y.
The Spartans (21-8, 4-3 UAA) enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will battle host NYU on Friday at 2:00 p.m.
Last season, the Spartans entered the championship as tournament hosts and the No. 5 seed, eventually finishing fourth. That finish was the best for the program since 2000 and coupled with a strong regular season, earned the Spartans the first-ever NCAA Tournament berth in team history.
"The UAA continues to be the dominating volleyball conference in Division III," said Head Coach Karen Farrell. "Our top two teams are ranked second and third nationally, and we also have a third top-15 team and two squads ranked in their respective regions. We competed well against the teams ranked above us, so we feel we have opportunities to improve our conference standing if we play our best volleyball."
Senior middle hitter Tricia McCutchan (Hamilton, Ohio/Stephen T. Badin) has led the Spartan attack all season with a UAA-best 415 kills and a .319 hitting percentage to go along with 251 digs and 95 total blocks. Earlier this season, McCutchan broke Lindsey Deyer's (1998-00) CWRU career record for kills, and she enters play this weekend with 1,875 in 482 sets played over the past four years. McCutchan is also just one block and one set shy of tying two more school career records, each held by Krissa Kean (1995-98), who totaled 469 blocks in 483 sets during her career.
"Tricia continues to improve all aspects of her game and she is playing the best volleyball of her career right now," noted Farrell. "All of our players will need to compete at their highest potential to ensure our success this weekend."
Also aiding in the attack is senior outside hitter Rachael Suchy (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township) and freshman middle hitter Natalie Southard (Buffalo, N.Y./City Honors School).
Suchy has been a constant scorer during the last four years and has contributed 261 kills as a senior. She ranks seventh all-time on the CWRU career leaderboard in kills (1,146) and ninth in sets played (443). Southard has been one of the UAA's top rookies, totaling 218 kills with a .332 hitting percentage (fifth in the UAA) and 94 total blocks.
Junior setter Breana Freeman (Geneva, Ohio/Geneva) has been Case's offensive catalyst this season with 1,065 assists to go along with 119 kills and 265 digs. Freeman is third all-time in CWRU history with 2,649 assists.
Leading the defense have been junior libero Rachel Gulasey (Cleveland, Ohio/Magnificat) and specialist Olivia Stanton-Ameisen (Bryn Mawr, Pa./The Baldwin School). The duo has contributed 442 and 297 digs, respectively.
Also making significant contributions in 2011 have been junior outside hitter Allie Palmer (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon) with 126 kills, junior middle hitter Hanna Collins (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) with 78 kills and 34 blocks, and junior defensive specialist Alexandria Drake (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain) with 160 digs.
The winner of the CWRU-NYU match on Friday will play again at 4:00 p.m. versus the winner of the No. 1 Emory University (Ga.) versus No. 8 Brandeis University (Mass.) match. The loser of the two matches play at 6:00 p.m.
"Our goals this season included improving our finish in the conference and earning a bid to the national tournament," said Farrell. "We know those are challenging goals, and our focus is to win our first match this weekend against NYU."
Day two of the championships begins with seventh, fifth and third-place matches all at 10:00 a.m. The championship is set for 1:00 p.m.
