NESCAC Volleyball Championship Heads to Colby

Wire-to-Wire Finish for 10-0 Mules

HADLEY, Mass. - Colby College capped off a perfect regular season on Saturday, defeating Hamilton 3-0 early in the day and then needing five games to overcome Williams, 3-2, to earn the right to host the 2005 NESCAC Volleyball Championship. The three day event starts on Friday, November 4 in Waterville, Maine, with the quarterfinal round and culminates on Sunday, November 6, with the championship.

The Mules (31-3, 10-0 NESCAC) will look to earn their first NESCAC Volleyball Championship this year, having competed in each of the last five tournaments yet only advancing out of the quarterfinal round twice (2000, 2003) during that time. Top-seeded Colby will take on eight-seeded Wesleyan (16-11, 3-7 NESCAC) in one of the first quarterfinal games of the day on Friday at 6:00 p.m. The Mules defeated the Cardinals 3-1 in the lone meeting of the season on October 8.

After the completion of regular season on Saturday, a five-way tie for third emerged between teams all sporting a 6-4 conference record. Amherst (17-10), Connecticut College (16-9), Middlebury (13-11), Trinity (16-10), and Williams (17-12) completed their 2005 campaign deadlocked for third and wondering just who they would face in the quarterfinals on Friday. The NESCAC tiebreaking procedure was implemented in order to determine which team would earn which seed.

The first criteria for breaking a tie in the NESCAC is head-to-head wins, or in the instance where three-or-more teams are tied, head-to-head against all opponents tied in the group. Each of the five teams posted a 2-2 record against the other four. The next criteria, most conference wins, also was unable to break the tie, as each team has six conference wins. The remaining tiebreakers, record against the top four teams, record against the top eight teams, and record against each team in rank order failed to break the logjam of teams in the third spot.

The last and final tiebreaker, using a random action to break a tie, was applied. A lottery was created for the five teams, and the names of each team were dropped into a hat and slips were picked to determine which team would earn which seed in the upcoming tournament. The first name picked was Middlebury, earning the Panthers the third seed, followed by Williams for the fourth seed, then the Camels of Connecticut College for the fifth seed, and they were followed shortly afterwards by fellow Constitution State resident Trinity for the sixth seed. The lone remaining team, Amherst, earned the seventh seed, and the right to face second-seeded Tufts (25-5, 9-1 NESCAC). Tufts only loss of the season came at the hands of Colby on September 16, 3-0. Middlebury will battle Trinity, while Connecticut College will take on Williams on Friday.

2005 NESCAC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP at Colby
Quarterfinals - Friday, Nov. 4
No. 8 Wesleyan at No. 1 Colby - 6:00 p.m.
No. 7 Amherst vs. No. 2 Tufts - 6:00 p.m.
No. 6 Trinity vs. No. 3 Middlebury - 8:00 p.m.
No. 5 Connecticut College vs. No. 4 Williams - 8:00 p.m.

Semifinals - Saturday, Nov. 5
Winner of No. 1/No. 8 vs. Winner of No. 4/No. 5 - 1:00 p.m.
Winner of No. 2/No. 7 vs. Winner of No. 3/No. 6 - 3:30 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, Nov. 6
Semifinal winners - 1:00 p.m.