Women's Volleyball Falls to SUNY Broome in National Championship Tournament

(Rochester, MN) Over the weekend, Nassau Women's Volleyball traveled to Minnesota to compete in the NJCAA National Championships. In the first round, the Lions faced Jamestown Community College. The Jayhawks were ranked 7th in the country going into the game. The Lions lost the first match 11-25. They shook the nerves and came back much stronger in the second and third sets, however they weren't able to lock down the win. They fell to Jamestown 0-3. With one strike against them, the Lions knew they needed to capture a win against 11th ranked Northampton Community College. Nassau came out hot winning the first 2 sets, 25-14 and 25-16. They sat back a little too far in the 3rd set and Northampton capitalized taking the win. The Lions pushed through and captured the 4th set to seal the deal and send themselves one step closer to the National Championship game. Head Coach Kristine Abrams commented in between games, "This game was really a team effort. Everyone contributed to pulling us out of the slump and through to the next round." Jamie Demmett recorded 7 kills and 23 assists, while Destiny Knox had 11 kills and 16 digs. Alicja Zaborowska tallied 8 kills and 16 digs as Teammate Genesis Zepeda secured 7 kills and 9 digs. Rachel Foley came out with 6 kills and 11 digs. Maria Micolo played front row for the first time ever and snagged herself her first front row kill. She also recorded 10 digs. The third game was against SUNY Broome Community College. The Hornets were ranked 9th overall. The Lions fought hard making 3 close games. NCC narrowly lost 20-25, 18-25 and 22-25. Standout players were Demmett, who contributed all over the floor with 7 kills, 24 assists and 16 digs. Zepeda also contributed on several fronts with 7 kills, 16 digs, and 5 assists. Zaborowska came through adding 11 kills and 11 digs. The Lions ended the tournament 10th in the Nation, and overall were 28-14 to cap off the season. Individually, Demmett finished 12th in the Nation in Assists and 22nd in Service Aces. Zepeda came in 16th in the Nation with number of Digs. Zaborowska finished 21st in the Nation in Hitting Percentage and Knox finished 13th in Aces and 21st in Kills. "This particular National tournament was tough for us. We headed to Nationals with only 6 student-athletes, which forced a lot of the women to step up and play out of normal position on the National stage. These women really put their best foot forward. All of our matches were close, but they never gave up. The women have really represented themselves and Nassau well and I couldn't be more proud of them." stated Coach Abrams on their season after the last game.