BENNINGTON, Vt. – The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) has announced the brackets for its 2014 fall postseasons with Southern Vermont College taking the No. 5 seed in the women’s soccer championship and the sixth spot in the women’s volleyball tournament.
Women’s soccer makes it back to the NECC tournament for the fourth straight season after finishing 5-4 in the league for the second year in-a-row (7-10 overall). The Mountaineers will be on the road Tuesday for a first round matchup at Becker College (4-3-2), facing a Hawk team that took the fourth seed with their tie-breaking win over SVC earlier this year. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. at BC’s Alumni Field.
The winner of Southern Vermont against Becker will move on to play Thursday at Lesley University (9-0) in the semifinals. The second opening round match pits No. 3 Regis College (7-2) versus No. 6 Newbury College (3-5-1) with the final first round game seeing seventh-seeded Bay Path University (3-5-1) at No. 2 Elms College (8-1); the winners of those two matches will meet on Thursday for a semifinal match at the higher seed. The championship round will be held on Saturday at the highest remaining seed.
Women’s volleyball returns to the NECC postseason for the fifth consecutive season, looking to defend its three straight NECC postseason championships. The Mountaineers took the sixth seed with a 3-5 conference mark (7-14 overall) and will travel to No. 3 Newbury College (5-3) on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. first round matchup.
Also playing Tuesday will be No. 5 Becker College (3-5) at fourth-seeded Daniel Webster College (4-4); BC again slighted Southern Vermont with a regular season tie-breaker. The winners will move on to this weekend’s semifinals, hosted by a top-seeded Regis College team that went a perfect 8-0 in conference play. Lesley University took the second seed and the other first round bye with a 7-1 NECC mark. The semifinal round will be held on Friday with the winners facing off on Saturday. The winner of Southern Vermont-Newbury will face Lesley in one semifinal with Regis taking on the winner of Daniel Webster-Becker in the other. Those two semifinal winners will then meet up in the championship game for the title.