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SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- After a posting a regular season 6-2 record in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play, the Endicott women's volleyball team has received the #3 seed in the upcoming CCC Tournament. The Gulls finished the season 20-14 and ranked #12 in the most recent NEWVA and NCAA Regional polls. The CCC tournament starts on Tuesday as #3 Endicott plays host to #6 Eastern Nazarene at 7 p.m. in quarterfinal action.
The Gulls, who have made a post season appearance in 15 consecutive years, are in search of their first CCC title since 2008. Endicott and Eastern Nazarene met last Tuesday in the CCC regular season finale for the Gulls. Endicott was able to sweep the Lions and hold the Eastern Nazarene offense to a .038 average while the Gulls hit .277. In the match, the Endicott middles of Mackenzie Guerre (Carlsbad, Calif.), Hayley Knapp (Valencia, Calif.) and Kelli Sugrue (Tewksbury, Mass.) combined to put up a line of 18-0-32, good enough for a .563 average.
The Lions themselves have seemingly been in the playoffs for the last two matches now as they had to win their last two CCC contests against Gordon and Curry to qualify for the tournament. Eastern Nazarene was able to sweep past the Colonels of Curry to set up a matchup against Gordon in which the winner would advance to the Tournament. Providing appropriate drama, the match went to winner-take-all fifth set in which the Lions prevailed 15-12 to clinch their first tournament berth since 2007.
The winner of this matchup will advance to play the #2 seed Salve Regina who has a bye in the first round. The other quarterfinal match sees #4 University of New England host #5 Western New England, with the winner advancing to play #1 Roger Williams whose only CCC loss on the season came against Endicott.