The Cabrini women’s volleyball team competed in their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament on Friday, Nov. 11 at 8:20 p.m. The ladies fell in three games to the No 14. Mary Washington Eagles (29-3).
“I was nervous going into the game because the whole atmosphere was pretty intimidating,” freshman Kristen Bettermann said. “The other team’s student section was really big and loud.”
The volleyball team entered the NCAA tournament off of a tough battle for the conference championship over Keystone. The NCAA tournament is for the conference champions and the highest ranking teams in the nation.
“Going into the NCAA tournament for the first time as a freshman was great; it was awesome to see that all of our hard work during the season really did pay off,” Bettermann said.
The final scores of the three sets were 25-12, 25-16 and 25-14. Putting up double digits in each set is a very admirable accomplishment against a top 20 ranked team nationally.
Leaders for the Cavaliers include Kelly Guarino, Anne-Marie Jones and Emily Shannon who each had six kills. Ashely Shannon had the only ace for the blue and white, while Emily Stokarski led the team in assists and digs with 17 and 11.
This journey to the fourth consecutive tournament was especially important to one person in particular— lone senior Kelly Guarino. She has played here for four years and has seen nothing but excellence throughout her career.
Every athlete has an end to their career and Guarino has nothing to hang her head about after her four years as a cavalier.
“It’s amazing to be a part of a team who has won four consecutive CSAC titles; this year’s opportunity was extremely important being my final opportunity to advance past the first round,”Guarino said.
Guarino finished her prestigious career with 1,744 digs, 487 kills and 202 service aces. She is the all-time leader in service aces for the program and service attempts while holding the second spot in program history for digs.
“While this season has certainly had its highs and lows, the achievements we were able to make as a team and as individual players was amazing,” Guarino said. “I am extremely proud of this team for winning the conference championship and increasing our conference win streak to 50 matches.”
