In each of the past two seasons, the Hatters entered the Atlantic Sun tournament with aspirations of making history and capturing the program's first-ever conference championship. And twice in the quarterfinal round, Stetson battled set-for-set and point-for-point all the way into a decisive fifth frame, only to come away empty-handed.
The Hatters are back in the postseason and looking to take the next step this week as they compete for the 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship in Nashville, Tenn. Sixth-seeded Stetson (11-17) will face third-seeded Kennesaw State (17-8) in Thursday's quarterfinal match at Allen Arena. First serve is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on ESPN3.
"I would really like to see us get past the first round," junior Madison Akins said. "It would be the first time for our program. I just want all of us to go in and play at our best, to work together as a team and not beat ourselves. I think we are definitely capable of beating Kennesaw, so I just want to take them on first and move on from there."
Stetson and Kennesaw State split their two regular season meetings. The Hatters defeated the Owls 3-1 in DeLand on Oct. 10, and KSU defeated Stetson 3-0 in Kennesaw on Nov. 6. The two teams will be meeting in the postseason for the first time.
The Stetson-KSU winner will advance to face No. 2 seed Florida Gulf Coast on Friday at 8:30 p.m. The championship will be played Saturday at 4 p.m., with the winner earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Tournament host Lipscomb is the No. 1 seed.
In addition to the ESPN3 broadcasts, live stats, the Stetson volleyball twitter feed, and the HatCheck text messaging system will provide live updates as well.
Career Night for Connors
In last year's Atlantic Sun Championship, Shelby Connors set a new Stetson individual single-match record with 12 blocks. Two of those rejections came on solo blocks and 10 were block assists. She finished one block shy of the conference tournament single-match record (13).
Last A-Sun Tournament Victory
Stetson will be seeking its first postseason win since Nov. 16, 1995, a 3-2 victory over Jacksonville State during a double-elimination tournament.
Setting Records
The all-time assists leader in school history, senior Kayla Weller currently ranks eighth in A-Sun history (in the rally scoring era) with 3,762 assists. Weller enters the A-Sun Tournament with 927 assists on the season. She is looking to surpass 1,000 assists for the third consecutive year.
Blocking Records
As a team, the Hatters rank third in the A-Sun in total blocks (216) and blocks-per-set (2.04). Stetson is closing in on the school record for blocks in a season (225) and blocks-per-set in a season (2.00) during the rally-scoring era.
By The Numbers
Stetson has won the opening set 16 times this season ... The Hatters are 8-1 when hitting .200 or better.
