PBC Volleyball Tournament Begins Saturday

AUGUSTA, GA -- The 17th annual Peach Belt Conference volleyball tournament begins on Saturday morning in Greenwood, S.C., and will be hosted by Lander University. Six teams will compete in the single-elimination tournament which concludes with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 2007 season has been among the more competitive the PBC has seen in recent years with nearly 1/3 of all conference matches going to a fifth set.

USC Aiken is the top seed for the PBC Tournament after running the table with a perfect 10-0 record in 2007, the first time they have finished a regular conference season unbeaten in 15 years. The Lady Pacers will be looking for their second straight PBC Tournament title after their 2006 championship and fifth in school history. USCA currently leads the PBC in hitting percentage, assists, kills, aces and has the lowest opponent hitting percentage. 2006 tournament MVP Mandy Gerolstein will be the focal point of the offense. The senior middle hitter leads the PBC and is ranked 8th in all of NCAA Division II with her .407 hitting percentage. Stephanie Durham is another potent offensive force, currently ranked sixth in the league in kills while Missy Deardorff is in the top 10 in hitting percentage.

Lander hosts the PBC Tournament for the first time since 1999. The Bearcats’ second seed is the highest in team history after going 6-4 against the conference in the regular season. Lander also set a school record with 22 wins during the year. Currently leading the PBC in blocks and digs and ranked second in hitting percentage and opponents’ hitting percentage, the Bearcats enter the PBC tournament with six wins in their final eight conference matches. Senior libero Melissa Trippany became the PBC’s all-time digs leader during the season and has 2,498 in her career. Junior Kay Stewart leads the PBC in blocks with 1.38 per game and is also ranked seventh in the PBC in kills.

Armstrong Atlantic State is the third seed for the PBC tournament after finishing the conference season with a 5-5 mark. The Pirates lost two of their starters in the opening weeks of the season due to injury, but nevertheless are seeded third or higher for the ninth straight tournament. AASU set a school single-season dig record in 2007 with 2,478. Sophomore Nicole Yates set the school’s individual single-season dig record and has 550 heading to the PBC, one of the top-10 single-season performances in PBC history.

Francis Marion is seeded fourth in the PBC after going 4-6 in the PBC in 2007. The Patriots can bring the thunder with junior Jessica Lombardi, who leads the conference in kills with 481 this year. A two-time PBC Player of the Week in ‘07, Lombardi is only seven kills away from having one of the top-15 kill seasons in PBC history. She also has the first triple-double in FMU with 15 kills, 11 aces and 10 digs against Converse on Oct. 6. Senior Jackie Pheil moved into fifth place on the PBC all-time career digs list with 1,680. FMU is a three-time tournament champion, last winning the title in 2005.

UNC Pembroke will meet Francis Marion in the first round of the PBC tournament. The fifth seed in the championship, UNCP is 14-6 on the season in matches that go longer than three games. Junior Heather Fierce leads the PBC in assists with 1,469 on the year, the 10th-highest single-season total in PBC history. She has also been named the PBC Specialist of the Week three times in 2007. Sophomore libero Andrea Laza broke the school’s single-season digs record with 1,274 in her two-year career and is currently second in the PBC with 753 digs this season.

Augusta State enters the tournament as the sixth seed althought three of their losses in conference this year were by 3-2 scores and two others were decided 3-1. The Jaguars have the talent to pull off an upset or two, led by two-time PBC Player of the Week Jessica Howard. The sophomore is second in the PBC in kills and blocks and fifth in hitting percentage. Defensively, the Lady Jags will look to sophomore Lindsey Weider, who broke the Peach Belt’s single-season digs record this year with 811, surpassing the old mark by more than 100. Weider is currently ranked third in the nation with 7.31 digs per game.

The PBC Tournament begins on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11:00 am as Armstrong Atlantic State meets Augsusta State. Francis Marion takes on UNC Pembroke at 1:00 in the other quarterfinal. The semifinal round begins at 5:00 with the AASU/ASU winner meeting host Lander, then the FMU/UNCP winner taking on USC Aiken at 7:00. The tournament concludes on Sunday with the championship game at 2:00. All matches will be played in the Finis Horne Arena at Lander and live stats will be available for all matches through www.peachbeltconference.org and www.landerbearcats.com. Admission for all games is free.