POTSDAM, NY- Behind a well traveled crowd, Southern Vermont College Women's Volleyball record breaking season came to an end Friday evening at Alumni Gymnasium on the campus of Clarkson University. The Mountaineers ran up against #18 Cortland St. in the Division III NCAA regional tournament. Southern Vermont fell to the Red Dragons 3-0, 25-19, 25-12, and 25-23.

"We fought hard against a consistent team," Head Coach Josh Stokes said. "I asked the girls to go out and compete tonight and that's exactly what they did."

In the first set Cortland held an early four point advantage, but Southern Vermont came right back to tie the score at seven a piece. SVC's Alicia Manzo (Clovis, CA) served two aces to put Southern Vermont back in the game. However, Cortland regained its composure and forced Southern Vermont head coach Josh Stokes to take a timeout midway through the set trailing by six points. From that point on, nothing changed and the Red Dragons finished with a six-point edge.

In the second set the 18th ranked team in the country took control of the game and forced SVC made uncharacteristic mistakes. For the first time in 2011, SVC hit for a negative in game two when the Mountaineers hit negative .133. The Red Dragons won the set 25-12.

SVC looked as if they were en route to take a set in the third game. SVC had a 13-9 lead but Cortland rallied back to tie the score. Southern Vermont's Jessica Alvarez (Eagle Rock, CA)slammed a kill then had a block to give SVC a 15-13 lead. SVC held that lead all the way until 22-19, but Cortland scored six of the next seven points for a 25-23 victory and a 3-0 match win.

Southern Vermont's Alvarez led all hitters with 14 kills, including five in each of the first two sets. The rest of the Mountaineers accounted for 16 kills and 14 errors in 79 swings as Cortland was able to produce seven total blocks. Hershey Canta (Bataan, Philippines) led the Mountaineers with 26 assists, while Joanna Hogue (Los Gatos, CA) posted 12 digs and Alvarez added 10 digs.

Middle hitter Kaitlyn Cooper proved to a tough match up for the Mountaineers as she recorded 10 kills and had just two errors in 18 swings for Cortland. Sheena Asibey did Cooper one better, producing the same numbers in one less swing. Ashley Coyle also added in nine kills while producing a team-best 16 digs to go along with three aces. Kristen Guercio led Cortland with 33 assists and also had nine digs, while Jaclyn Lawrence produced 10 digs as the libero for the Red Dragons.

Southern Vermont finishes its season with a 31-3 record, a Division III regional appearance, a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) regular season title, and a NECC tournament championship. The season was the best of any in Southern Vermont's athletic program history.