Nov. 10, 2006

Sacred Heart Pioneers vs. Quinnipiac Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 12:00 pm EST Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sacred Heart Pioneers vs. New Jersey Tech Sunday, November 12, 2006 - 2:00 pm EST Brooklyn, N.Y.

SHU Closes Season Against Quinnipiac and NJIT... The Sacred Heart volleyball team will wrap-up 2006 this weekend, finishing Northeast Conference play at Quinnipiac and hosting New Jersey Tech on "Senior Day". The Pioneers snapped a 21 match losing streak last weekend posting a 3-0 win at St. Francis-NY. SHU was eliminated from the NEC playoff hunt with their lost at Long Island on Monday.

Series Record vs. Quinnipiac... Quinnipiac leads the all-time series, 6-2. SHU two wins in the series came last season in a 3-2 win at the Lafayette Tournament and a 3-1 win over the Bobcats at home.

Series Record vs. NJIT... This is the first meeting between the Pioneers and the Highlanders.

Scouting the Bobcats... The Bobcats are 1-28 on the year and 1-5 in the Northeast Conference. Quinnipiac's lone win came against St. Francis (NY) in October. Since that win, they have lost seven-straight. Jenna Benigno leads the team with 162 kills . Crista Valentino has 139 kills and 206 digs.

Scouting the Blackbirds... New Jersey Tech is 9-21 on the year and is 4-4 against teams from the Northeast Conference this year. The Highlanders have a trio of players with over two hundred kills. Kristy Haeckel has 267 kills with 44 service aces, 122 digs and 80 total blocks. Agnieszka Pregowska has 264 kills and Kasha Hornstein has 263 kills.

Gametracker... Can't make it to the Pitt Center for a home game this year. No need to worry because starting this year, Pioneer Fans can follow all the action on their computer using Gametracker at SacredHeartPioneers.com. Just click on the Gametracker link on the Women's Volleyball Schedule page to follow each point.

Up Next... The 2006 season concludes on Sunday afternoon.

Last Time Out... Junior Shelby Heggie paced the Blackbirds with 13 kills as Long Island remained unbeaten in Northeast Conference play with a 3-0 (30-15, 30-16, 30-23) sweep of Sacred Heart. Freshman Svetlana Simic had a game-high 13 digs, adding three aces. Martina Wagner, who entered the game second in the nation in aces per game, had six against the Pioneers. The junior also registered six kills and five digs. Long Island used a balanced attack as five players had at least six kills. Sophomore Martina Racic and junior Trevon Dyson each had fine nights for the Blackbirds, tallying nine and seven kills, respectively. Junior Toni Perhat added eight kills and seven digs. As a team, Long Island outhit Sacred Heart 46-20. For the match, the Blackbirds hit .313, while the Pioneers hit .000. Tiffany Phoenix had seven kills and seven digs to lead Sacred Heart.

Archer Named NEC Player of the Week... Freshman Annie Archer was named the Northeast Conference Volleyball Rookie of the Week. Archer earns her first NEC Rookie of the Week honor after tallying 11 kills, four blocks, four digs and three service aces in a 3-0 win over St. Francis (NY) last week. In the Pioneers only action for the week, she hit .421 against the Terriers, coming up with 11 kills and only three errors in 19 attempts. On the day, the freshman middle blocker from Littleton, CO averaged 3.7 kills, 1.33 blocks, 1.33 digs and 1.0 aces per game. Archer currently stands eighth in the NEC in blocks with 0.87 blocks per game (59.0 overall) and has contributed 1.94 kills per game this season.

Charnette Porter, SHU's Lone Senior... Senior Charnette Porter will play in her final match Sunday afternoon. Porter leads the team in kills with 164 from her middle blocker position. Porter also leads the club with 25 solo blocks. She has a total of 65 blocks on the year. For her career, she has played in 98 matches with 322 games played. She has 572 career kills, 228 total blocks, 153 digs, 38 assists and 32 service aces.

Thomas Leads the Defense... Sophomore libero Katie Thomas continues to lead the Northeast Conference in digs this season, coming up with 4.22 per game. Thomas has collected 333 in 79 total games this year. She also has 16 service aces.