By Nathan Vaughan
In two days, for the first time a Northeastern squad will welcome the rest of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) to its home court and play host as the top seed in a championship tournament.
This six-team, five-game tournament will be played between Saturday and Monday, bringing with it all of the logistical issues of hosting a tournament. The CAA will be sending two representatives to aid in the planning but the Athletics Department will be handling the logistics for the most part.
“We are happy to be hosting this event,” said Director of Sports Information Jon Litchfield. “No doubt about it, it’s a huge accomplishment for our volleyball team to get the top seed and an honor to be hosting our first CAA Championship event.”
There will be two games on Saturday. The first will be between the fourth-seeded William ‘ Mary and the fifth-seeded Hofstra at 4 p.m. Overall the Huskies are 6-3 against William ‘ Mary (6-1 since joining the CAA in 2005.) They are the only CAA member in the top 100 for RPI, at 80. This year the Huskies swept the Tribe, only losing one set to them in Williamsburg. Hofstra and Northeastern have a dubious past. In the all-time series the Huskies are 3-31. This year the Huskies snapped a 16-match losing streak to the Pride with a five set win in Hofstra, but they were later swept on Solomon Court.
Senior outside hitter and captain Lauren DeTurk pointed to the team’s win against Hofstra Sept. 27 as one of the highlights of the regular season.
“That did start off the CAA for us,” she said. “That was our first CAA [win] on the road. Just because of how bad they beat us last year. They gave us a lot of courage and confidence for the rest of the season.”
The second match up of the night pits the third-seeded Delaware Blue Hens against the sixth-seeded Towson Tigers. Delaware is the defending CAA tournament champions, the preseason favorites to defend their crown. This was despite the fact that during the past five years no team in the CAA has repeated as champions.
The Blue Hens swept the Huskies in their only meeting this year, in Delaware. The Tigers were able to take the Huskies to five sets for only the third time, in the only meeting between the two, at Towson.
Northeastern has all-time winning records against both Delaware and Towson with records of 14-12 and 13-6 respectively.
Second-seeded Virginia Commonwealth is in possession of the other bye in the tournament. The Rams had a great season and were in contention to host this tournament going into the last day of play against Northeastern. In the two meetings, the Huskies won both, sweeping at VCU and winning 3-1 in Boston. The pair of wins increased the Huskies lead in the all-time series to 9-2. The Rams will take on the winner of the second match at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
The top-seeded Huskies will begin play in the first semifinal on Sunday at 4 p.m. against the winner of the first game on Saturday.
Their 12-2 record in CAA play was their best since joining the CAA.
This year marks the first time the Huskies have finished first in the regular season since 1992, when they were still in the America East.
During this season they put up an 11-match winning streak, which is the fourth best for Northeastern. The Huskies lead the CAA in hitting percentage, with a .211 mark, and aces per game, with 1.62.
This season the Huskies took on a challenging schedule. With two major tournaments at the top of the schedule the Huskies were looking for a marquee win.
They were unable to get one, falling to No. 2 Nebraska and No. 14 Cal Poly in straight sets. Though they were able to take a set on the road at South Florida, at South Florida, and Tulane, who has garnished votes in the polls all year long.
They played over 70 percent of their matches away from Boston, including a 10-game road trip to begin the season.
“All that time spent on the road helped as an incentive to get to where we are now and be able to host,” said head coach Ken Nichols.
“We have had a sense of almost contempt when it comes to the rest of the conference,” Nichols said. “I told the kids the other day the analogy is that we are the rookie, we are the freshman in this conference. We still don’t get the respect … And going through this past weekend and looking at the goal of hosting, is one more way of saying we are legit. We are here and we intend to be the top team in conference in the next year.”
This year DeTurk has been a powerful presence on the court. She leads the team in kills with a total of 328. She is followed by sophomore setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown with 209 and senior outside hitter Brianna Seitz with 201. DeTurk’s kill total puts her in second for the conference for kills per set.
DeTurk also currently sits at second on the team in digs and aces with 309 and 29 respectively. Only junior libero Leah Neubeck leads her and only by the slim margin of 25, with 334 digs for herself. DeTurk stands at eighth in the CAA in digs while Neubeck is fifth. Brown is the team and CAA leader in service aces with 41, DeTurk’s 29 is seventh best.
Meanwhile, sophomore middle hitter Caitlin Tittl currently leads the team in hitting percentage at .273, which puts her at eighth in the CAA, just ahead of senior opposite hitter Sarah Stein, with a .243 mark. Tittl is also tied with sophomore middle hitter Jillian Robinson for the team lead in blocks with 64, though Robinson leads in solo blocks with 22.
Since the Huskies run a 6-2 offense, they use two setters. This season, junior setter Jessica Tkachuk led with 546 sets while Brown tallied 450. Tkachuk is eighth in the CAA while Brown stands at 10th for assists per set.
“I think that I never think that I play good enough,” said DeTurk. “It is almost impossible to have that perfect game, but that is what I always want to have. So I think that’s what it is, just always wanting to play better than you have before.”
