Salisbury wins fourth CAC title in comeback fashion, punches ticket to NCAA tournament
SALISBURY, Md. - It was a sluggish start for the second-seed Salisbury University Sea Gulls in the Capital Athletic Conference championship match on Saturday evening at the Maggs Center. The Sea Gulls dropped the first set (26-30) to fourth-seed St. Mary's (Md.) College before the maroon and gold ripped off three straight wins (30-19, 30-24, 30-18) to capture the program's fourth CAC title, first since 2004, with the 3-1 come-from-behind victory before a crowd of 400.
The win gives Salisbury the automatic bid into the 2007 NCAA Division III volleyball tournament. The Sea Gulls will wait until Monday (November 5) for the official release of the bracket.
Salisbury (28-10) was led by its front court of junior Stacey Krebs, sophomores Rachel Downes and Nicole Masserelli. Krebs finished the game with 14 kills and a team-high 17 digs. Downes smashed home a team-high 19 kills in 32 attempts and made nine digs while Masserelli had a season-high 18 kills and three digs. The big three and freshman Kathleen Cinelli (seven kills) combined to make 18 blocks in the victory. The backcourt combination of junior Jaime Marzocchi and sophomore Gabby Long helped to spark the SU comeback. Marzocchi distributed a team-high 59 assists, her second highest total of the season, made 12 digs and had three block assists. Long had 16 digs, two kills and two service aces in the win.
The 28 wins is the most wins under SU coach Margie Knight since her first season at the helm in 1997 at her alma mater. The 28 wins is also the most amount of wins for the Sea Gulls since 1993. The all-time record for wins in a season for Salisbury is 35 set in 1990. All four CAC championships (1998, 2000, '04, '07) have happened during the Coach Knight era.
St. Mary's (Md.) became the second straight 30-6 team to face the Sea Gulls in the CAC tournament and the second consecutive team to exit the Maggs Center with a 30-7 record. SU defeated York (Pa.) College, 3-0, in the CAC semifinals on Thursday evening. SU is now 14-2 at home this season as the Sea Gulls went 3-0 in the CAC tournament with a 9-1 set record.
The volleyball championship capped off a successful day for the Sea Gulls who won four of the six possible CAC fall championships. Salisbury won the field hockey, men's soccer and men's cross country titles in addition to volleyball. The Sea Gulls were runners-up in women's cross country and women's soccer.
