ATTLEBORO, Mass. – The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) announced Saturday night its 2017 women’s volleyball postseason tournament bracket with Southern Vermont College taking the No. 4 seed in its first playoff appearance since 2014.

The Mountaineers finished the regular season with a league record of 4-3 (8-18 overall)—marking the team’s most Conference victories in the last three years. SVC will host fifth-seeded Bay Path University (2-5 NECC, 9-13 overall) at 7 p.m. Tuesday night on the Southern Vermont campus for a first-round tilt.

SVC just recently defeated BPU, 3-0, on October 26.

“It feels great to be in the playoffs this year,” Southern Vermont first-year head coach Pat Robidoux said. “This group of players has worked so hard all year, and I am so proud of all that they have accomplished. Every member of this team deserves to be where we are this year, and I am very excited for the direction in which the program is heading.”

Southern Vermont saw a good deal of success against the top-three teams of the Conference standings during the regular season; the Mountaineers took a set off of top-seeded Elms College while getting edged 3-2 by both Lesley University and Becker College. SVC enters the postseason with some momentum—having won seven of its last nine matches.

“We haven't thought about next week too much,” Robidoux said of his team’s playoff mentality. “We look at one match at-a-time, and we’ve been planning for the last few of the regular season to this point. We just need to focus-in on our next match and opponent before we move on to another; that is how we have had the success that we’ve had thus far.”

With a Tuesday win, SVC will move on to play top-seeded Elms College (7-0 NECC, 17-9 overall) on Friday at 7 p.m. in the tournament’s semifinal round. The other side of the bracket has No. 3 Becker College (4-3 NECC, 12-15 overall) hosting sixth-seeded Mitchell College (2-5 NECC, 2-17 overall) in Tuesday’s second first-round match; Becker took the three seed over SVC as the Hawks defeated Southern Vermont, 3-2, in early October.

Lesley University (6-1 NECC, 12-14 overall) is set to host a semifinal round against the winner of Becker and Mitchell, and the two Friday victors will then face off on Sunday at the highest remaining seed for a chance to move into the NCAA Division III tournament.

– #LetsGoSVC –