Nov 20, 2009

Reviewing the 2009 Volleyball Season

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NORTH ANDOVER, MA - Following a program-record 21 victories, the Merrimack volleyball team already has plenty of motivation for next season.

In a season in which the Warriors defeated three NCAA Tournament teams, Bridgeport, the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament Champion UMass Lowell, and Pace University, Merrimack missed out on the playoffs, settling for a 21-11 overall record, 8-7 in the Northeast-10.

"Considering we didn't participate in post-season play, it was a good year overall for our Merrimack Volleyball family," said head coach Joey Pacis. "We surpassed the 20-win mark for the first time in school history and broke other records in the process. We also successfully incorporated five new players and one new coach into our system and started 3 freshmen from the beginning."

The highlight of the season was winning their first-ever ECC/NE-10 Challenge on September 19. After beating Bridgeport 3-1 on September 18, Merrimack rounded out the weekend with 3-0 victories over Queens and New York Tech and finished as the only team to win all three matches in the challenge. Molly Cindric was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player while Megan Murray was named to the All-Tournament Team.

"Beating three ECC teams was huge for our program since many times the outcome affects NCAA regional rankings. The Bridgeport win was probably our best team performance of the season."

Alyssa Pickert was named the Northeast-10 Libero of the Year, becoming just the fourth player in program history to win a major honor from the Northeast-10. Pickert led the entire East region in digs and digs per game in the regular season. She will enter her senior season as the program's all-time leader with 1,770 career digs and 598 digs in season.

Cindric was a first-team Northeast-10 honoree for the third straight year. After being the first All-American honorable mention in school history last year, she led the conference with 403 kills and was second overall with 3.63 kills per set. Cindric is closing in on the school records for kills and blocks in a career.

"Molly and Alyssa were steady and solid for us all season," said Pacis. "To have them considered as two of the top-14 players in our conference is a much appreciated honor, not only for them, but also for program. In addition, I'm glad that Alyssa was recognized as Libero of the Year. She's worked very hard to better her play every year. "

Finally, Shaunda Forcier was an all-rookie selection after averaging 2.42 kills per set. After getting 15 kills in her first career match, Forcier really improved as the season went along, finishing with 10 or more kills in 10 matches. Jenna Reilly, Brianna Trabucco and Natalee Yeazle also progressed throughout the season, and we look forward to incorporating them more into our offense next season.

Captain Elyse Lorenz set the school record for career assists in a 3-2 loss to Bentley, while head coach Joey Pacis became the program's all-time leader in wins, when he captured his 100^th career victory on October 10 with a 3-1 victory over Franklin Pierce.

Merrimack will return next year with the roster virtually intact. They will not lose any players to graduation and will certainly scour the country, looking to add talent to an already deep squad. Next season will mark the final campaign for Cindric, Pickert, Lorenz, Murray and Heidi Wroblicky. Four of them (Murray arrived as a sophomore) were freshmen on the team that went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history in 2007 and set then a program record with 18 victories. Cindric, Pickert, and Lorenz have already set many school records, and the class of 2011's names will be scattered throughout the record books when they graduate next year.

"The team is looking to improve its intensity and consistency in 2010. We are fortunate to be returning all starters from this season and hope to add a few more players to the mix to keep things competitive within the team. I expect that next year's seniors will help lead the team into conference post-season play and hopefully, the NCAA tournament."


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