Volleyball Receives ECAC Invite

Nov. 7 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) After finishing fourth in University Athletic Association (UAA) Tournament over the weekend, the Carnegie Mellon University volleyball team has been given the number three-seed in the ECAC Southern Region Tournament. The tournament will be played Friday and Saturday, November 11-12 at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa.

The Tartans (19-18), who have won this tournament five of the last six years, will face sixth-seeded Washington & Jefferson (24-6) Friday at 6:00 pm. The winner will move to the semifinals to face the second-seed, Franklin & Marshall College (20-9), Saturday at 1:00 pm. The other quarterfinal match will be fourth-seeded Richard Stockton College (27-8) against fifth-seeded Johns Hopkins University (23-6), with the winner playing top seed Lebanon Valley (26-6) at 11:00 am on Saturday. The championship match will be played at 4:00 pm on Saturday.

Carnegie Mellon is led by junior Catie Fisher (Lancaster, Pa./ Hempfield), senior Chrissy Bartek (Pittsburgh, Pa./ Plum) and junior Amanda Bradford (Chapel Hill, N.C./East Chapel Hill). Fisher leads the Tartans in hitting percentage (.285), kills (522) and kills per game (3.95) and is second in service aces (43). Bartek leads the Tartans with 114 blocks and is third in kills with 322. Bradford is second on the team in kills with 355. Defensively the Tartans are led by junior libero Kat Fox (Oklahoma City, Okla./Casady), as she has recorded 592 digs.

Carnegie Mellon has split in two matches with their first round opponent, Washington & Jefferson, this season. On September 14 the Tartans fell 3-1 (30-25, 28-30, 30-26, 30-21) on the road to the Presidents, before defeating them 3-1 (29-31, 30-19, 30-28, 30-12) the following weekend in the Case Western Reserve tournament. In the two matches Fisher, Bradford and Bartek combined for 78 of the Tartans 111 kills. Bartek also recorded 11 total blocks in the two matches.