Stevens Hosts Empire 8 Volleyball Conference Weekend
September 25, 2008
ROCH
ESTER, NY – Stevens Institute of Technology will host the first of two Empire 8 volleyball conference weekends Friday through Sunday. All nine teams will play four matches this weekend and the second conference weekend to be hosted by Ithaca College Oct. 24-26.
There will be webcasts of matches on Friday and Sunday on Empire8.tv. To view the schedule and order the matches at no cost, please visit http://www.empire8.tv/
This weekend features several key matches in determining which team will garner the top seed and earn the right to host the conference championship on Saturday, Nov. 8. The seeds will be determined by order of finish in the two conference weekends combined with the top four teams advancing to the championship tournament.
Preseason favorite and nationally ranked Stevens Institute of Technology will open its conference season on Saturday against Rochester Institute of Technology in a rematch of last year’s championship.
The Tigers, who earned a trip to the NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship last year, will face Ithaca College, which advanced to last year’s conference tournament, on Sunday. RIT and St. John Fisher College meet on Saturday after going five games in each of their two meetings in 2007.
Nazareth College, which advanced to the regional finals of the NCAA tournament a year ago, opens the tournament on Friday against Elmira College. The Golden Flyers will also meet Ithaca on Saturday in a battle of conference championship teams from last season.
Alfred University and Hartwick College will join the Nazareth-Elmira match as the first matches Friday at 4 p.m. and will be the first match shown on the Empire 8 television network. Nazareth and Alfred will play on Empire8.tv at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
Sunday’s matches on Empire8.tv include the RIT-Ithaca match at 10 a.m. and two matches involving Stevens. The Ducks will face St. John Fisher at 12:30 p.m. and Utica College at 3:00 p.m.
Results will be available on the Empire 8 scoreboard as part of the Empire 8 web site (www.empire8.com) as well as on the Stevens web site at http://www.stevensducks.com/sports/wvball/release.asp?release_id=4019