Courtesy Colby Sports Information

Box Score:  Colby 3, Tufts 0

WATERVILLE, Maine - The Colby College volleyball team conquered the New England Small College Athletic Conference and now it's on to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The top-seeded Mules won the 2005 NESCAC Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 victory (30-28, 30-27, 30-27) over No. 2 Tufts University at Colby's Wadsworth Gymnasium on Sunday.

Colby earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney and will host an eight-team regional this Thursday to Saturday. The NCAA is expected to announce the pairings late Sunday night.

The Mules (34-3) clinched the NESCAC regular season title last weekend with a 10-0 record and this weekend won three straight 3-0 matches to win their first NESCAC title in program history. The NCAA bid is also a first for the Colby volleyball team.

"Any time we got out of our system, people just made plays for us," said 11th-year head coach Candice Parent. "I think our senior leadership was key for us. With this group there was no letting down, we just played hard and with the same intensity all the time."

Colby's seniors came to play Sunday. Cait Cleaver (Kennett Square, Pa.) had 15 kills and 25 defensive digs. Two of the kills came on game-clinching points to end the tight first and second games. Cleaver's kill to end the second game may have been the point of the match, with play going back-and-forth for some time before the decisive shot by Cleaver.

The three other seniors - Megan Devlin (Branford, Conn.), Kaitlin Adams (Athol, Mass.) and Mariah Daly (Baltimore, Md.) - also had big matches. Devlin had 31 digs and eight kills, Adams finished with nine kills and three blocks, and Daly had eight kills and 10 digs.

Colby had six players with 10 digs or more. Junior libero Kendall Kirby (Piedmont, Calif.) had 22 digs and Cassie Sancartier (Haverhill, Mass.) had 12 digs. First-year setter Jenny Lawrence (Lafayette, Calif.) had 42 assists and 10 digs.

"The whole team did the job defensively for us," Parent said. "On paper, Tufts could have better hitters than us. Yet when you can dig balls like we did and block like we did, than you can frustrate them."

Colby played the game in front of a vocal crowd of about 450 fans, including the parents of all the players and a surprise guest from Ireland.

"Jen Murphy has played with us the last two years, but is studying abroad in Ireland," Parent said. "She came to my door on Friday before the tourney and I just couldn't believe it. She came all the way from Ireland to see us play. The support has been amazing from the parents as well - we had everyone's parents here today whether they flew in from California or drove up from Connecticut. Hopefully we can get the same support we had the last few days for the NCAA tourney."

2005 NESCAC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Friday, Nov. 4 at Colby
at No. 1 Colby 3, No. 8 Wesleyan 0
No. 2 Tufts 3, vs. No. 7 Amherst 0
No. 4 Williams 3, vs. No. 5 Connecticut College 0
No. 6 Trinity 3, vs. No. 3 Middlebury 0

Semifinals - Saturday, Nov. 5 at Colby
at No. 1 Colby 3, No. 4 Williams 0
No. 2 Tufts 3, vs. No. 6 Trinity 1

Championship - Sunday, Nov. 6 at Colby
at No. 1 Colby 3, No. 2 Tufts 0