Troy, NY – After posting a 28-7 record, The Sages Colleges has been selected as the No. 1 seed in the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III North Men's Volleyball Championship. The tournament is a four-team field with, semifinals and a championship.
In the first-round contests on Saturday, April 20 #1 Seed The Sages Colleges (28-7) will host #4 Seed Daniel Webster College (NH) (15-12) at 11:00 a.m., while the second seed Elmira College (NY) (19-15) will face #3 Wentworth Institute of Technology (MA) (19-10) at 1:00 p.m. at the Neff Center in Troy, NY.
The first-round winners will advance to the finals on Saturday. The winner of #1 The Sages Colleges vs. #4 Daniel Webster College will face the winner of #2 Elmira College vs. #3 Wentworth IT at 4:00 p.m.
For Sage the 2013 ECAC Tournament selection, is the first in the history of the program, which is just four years young. The Gators finished as the 2013 Skyline Conference Runner-up, dropping a 3-1 decision to No. 14 ranked Kean University in the championship match on Saturday night. The 2013 Gators have continued to rewrite the young program's record book with every time they have stepped on the court under interim head coach Sandy Augstein-Collins.
For the Gators sophomore outside Andy Fishman (Cornwallville, NY/ Cairo-Durham) earned Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week honors nine times this season. He has a team-best 374 kills with a record 85 aces. He is also leading Division III with his 0.82 aces per set average.
Sage's team has three seniors on the roster. Spencer Hilland (Slingerlands, NY/Bethlehem Central) has attached his name to many of Sage's career records. He hold the marks for most kills (842), most points (1,059) and most solo blocks (67), and most total blocks (249). Setter Kyle Ray (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) has a school-record 1,213 setting assists on the year. Ray, who is also the career setting assist leader at Sage with 2,819 setting assists. Rounding out the trio of seniors at Sage is middle and outside hitter, Ryan Kramer (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem Central). He has racked up 127 kills with 66 total blocks. He has played in 179 sets at Sage with 270.5 career points which is No. 8 on the career list.
Junior middle hitter Connor Thompson (Delmar, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) was instrumental in the Gators' run to the Skyline Conference Championship finals. He added 12 total blocks on the week, while racking up 25 kills and had a .291 attack percentage last week. On the season, he ranks nationally in blocks per set (No. 16, 0.99), while also ranking No. 31 in attack percentage with a .314 average. He leads the Gators with his 101 total blocks. Thompson has played in 84 career matches, which is No. 2 at Sage and has 51 solo blocks (No. 2), 189 solo blocks (No. 1), and 240 total blocks (No. 2).
Among the many players adding to the success of this team are juniors Cory Gransbury (Round Top, NY/Cairo-Durham), Justin Pruiksma (Athens, NY/Coxsackie-Athens), and Zachary Kuhn (Rensselaer, NY/Columbia). Additional support has come from Matthew DeGeyter (Hudson, NY/Hawthorne Valley). Gransbury has racked up 153 digs in 113 sets played this year, while Zuhn checks in with 21 digs in 44 sets played. Pruiksma has played in 43 sets and has connected for 45 kills with 36 digs.
As a team, the Gators received three votes in the latest AVAC Division III Men's Poll, marking the second time this season the team has picked up votes. Sage ranks No. 5 in the team statistics in both aces per set (1.94) and win-loss percentage (0.813). Sage is ranked in the Top 20 in five additional categories. The Gators are No. 16 in digs per set (10.2), No. 17 in hitting percentage (0.243), No. 18 in assists per set (10.9), No. 18 in blocks per set (2.09), and No. 20 in kills per set average (11.82).
