LAKEWOOD, NJ (Dec. 4, 2024) - Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, it's been more than 10 days since Georgian Court Volleyball last played, winning the CACC Tournament Championship. That all changes now with the Regional Tournament starting up Thursday morning. 

Opponent
No. 2 Daemen Wildcats (17-8, 9-3 ECC)

Where
Waltham Mass. - Dana Center, hosted by Bentley

When
Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 - 11 am
Should GCU continue to advance, the semifinals would be Friday, Dec. 6 and the Regional Championship Saturday, Dec. 7.

How to Watch
• All NCAA East Region Tournament matches are available via a free-to-view broadcast on the Bentley portal of Northeast-10 Digital Network, powered by FloVolleyball. Live stats are available on the Lions Volleyball schedule page.

Ticketing
• Tickets for all Regional Championship games can be purchase online at the link above or in person. 
• $8 adults
• $5 seniors/students

Previously vs. Daemen
• These two teams have only met once previously in their history.
• Daemen picked up a 3-0 win nearly a decade ago back in September of 2015.
• That game was also at a neutral site.
• Peggy Rosario led the Lions with 13 kills. 

Last Time Out
• It was an historic day the last time the Lions took the floor.
• They swept Post in the finals of the CACC Tournament to claim their seventh title of the NCAA era.
• The Lions hit nearly .300 and didn't surrender a block the entire match.
• Chelsea Ross was named Tournament MVP after hitting .500 without an error in the finals.
• Nylene Mateo landed 15 kills to help seal the victory. 

Individual Milestones
• Nylene Mateo has already set a new Lions program record for kills. She's only adding to her total now. She needs two more to reach 1400 and is 14 digs away from 900. She'd be just the ninth Lion to ever reach 900 digs in a career. 
• Giorgia Cappelletti is up to third in a single-season in service aces with 76. She needs four more to match second place and 16 to tie for the most all-time. 
• Carmen Rivera is three aces away from 50. She can also crack the single-season top-10 in digs with 25 more. 
• Iciar Zayas needs 67 assists to get to 2,000, something just four other Lions have ever done. 
• Amiyah Woods can move to ninth all-time in blocks with two more and all the way to seventh with seven more.
• Chelsea Ross can move from eighth to third in single-season blocks with eight more. 

CACC Leaders (Based on NCAA Stats)
• Giorgia Cappelletti is leading the country in both total service aces and aces per set. 
• Chelsea Ross is leading the CACC with 1.11 blocks per set and hitting percentage at .372. 
• Carmen Rivera is in the CACC top-10 at No. 7 for digs per set with 3.57.
• Iciar Zayas with 5.62 assists per set ranks eighth. 
• Nylene Mateo's 3.92 points per set is fifth in the conference. She's also seventh at 0.50 service aces per set. 
• Georgian Court is second in the CACC with 1.82 blocks per set.
• The Lions 2.29 aces per set is second in the league and 11th in Division II.
• GCU's 0.194 hitting percentage is third in the CACC and their 0.176 opponent hitting percentage is the fourth-best in the league. 

Who's Hot?
• Chelsea Ross has hit .300 or better in 16 of her last 20 matches including hitting at least .500 in two of the three CACC Tournament games. 
• Giorgia Cappelletti has 10+ kills in six of her last seven matches.
• Nylene Mateo hit at least .250 in all three CACC Tournament games and totaled 45 kills. 
• Iciar Zayas has 20+ assists in five of her last six matches.  
• Dayna Diaz has at least 13 assists in 10 straight matches. 
• Amari Morales had five service aces in the semifinals and finals of the CACC Tournament. 
• Amiyah Woods hit over .300 in the CACC Tournament semifinals and finals. 

Three and Free, but Five is Okay Too
• After playing their share of long matches earlier in the season, Georgian Court is finishing things quick.
• Eight of the Lions last 13 matches have finished in three sets with the Lions going 7-1 in those three-set matches. 
• On the other hand, if matches do go long, Georgian Court is quite comfortable.
• The Lions are 6-0 in five-set games this year. They are also 8-8 when losing the first set. 

The NCAA Regional Tournament
• This is Georgian Court's seventh trip to the NCAA Regional since 2006.
• The Lions made it four straight seasons from 2006-09 along with 2013 and 2019.
• GCU competes in the East Region along with teams from the Northeast-10 and ECC Conference.
• All eight teams that qualify for the regional compete three straight days at one site. This year's host is No. 1 seed Bentley.
• The Lions are the only CACC team to advance to this year's Regional Tournament.
• The rest of the field sees No. 1 Bentley, No. 2 Daemen, No. 3 American International, No. 4 New Haven, No. 5 Adelphi, No. 6 Mercy and No. 8 D'Youville.
• In the six previous NCAA Regionals, GCU has advanced to the semifinals only once, that was in 2008 when they swept Merrimack in the first round. 
• This not Coach Shana Rayside's first foray into the NCAA Regional. She was also on that 2019 team that qualified, as a player. 

All-CACC Team
• Before the conference tournament, the CACC announced their All-CACC team.
• The Lions put three on the All-CACC squad.
• Nylene Mateo was a First Team selection at outside hitter. Chelsea Ross made the Second Team at middle blocker and Giorgia Cappelletti was a Third Team Outside Hitter.
• In addition to the three that made the All-CACC team, second-year head coach Shana Rayside was named the league's Coach of the Year.
• Cappelletti and Mateo are the second pair of outside hitters to make the same All-CACC team. Mateo also becomes the seventh Lion to ever make three all-conference teams.
• Chelsea Ross is the first middle blocker at GCU with repeat selections since 2018-19. 
• After the tournament, the CACC came out with the All-Tournament featuring Ross as the Tournament MVP.
• Cappelletti, Mateo, Amiyah Woods and Iciar Zayas also made the All-Tournament team.

About Daemen
• Daemen won the ECC regular season championship finishing 9-3 overall in league play.
• However they were knocked out in the first round by No. 4 seed D'Youville, who went on to win the whole tournament for the ECC automatic bid.
• The Wildcats led the ECC in most statistical categories. That includes service aces per set where their 2.54 was not only tops in the league, but fourth in Division II.
• Offensively, the Wildcats hit .201 for the season and average more than 13 kills per set.
• Daemen is not a big blocking team averaging a little more than 1.5 per set. Their strength defensively comes on the back line where they average nearly 16 digs per set.
• That defensive effort is led by the ECC Libero of the Year and All-Region performer Jasmine Brundage and her 4.30 digs per set.
• The offense is led by three hitters, Giselle Giraud, Nahirka Malpica and Abby Ryan who all made the ECC First Team.
• Ryan leads the team averaging 3.44 kills per set. Giraud is a right side with a team-best 296 kills this year.
• Malpica is also over three kills per set, but hasn't played since Nov. 3. 
• Three Lions have landed 40+ service aces and seven have hit 25+. Setter Avery Dole leads the team with 46 and 6.61 assists per set.