2017 ASUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- April 22-23, 2017
- Stetson University, DeLand, Florida
- Final Bracket
- Tournament Central
- Day 1 recap
The Stetson Hatters won the 3rd ASUN beach volleyball championship in program history on Sunday, beating Florida Gulf Coast 3-1 in front of a home crowd to take the title.
That was the second time that Stetson beat the Eagles on the day. In the 3rd round of play in the winners’ side of the bracket, Stetson swept 2nd-seeded Florida Gulf Coast 5-0, which gave them a free pass to the championship game.
Florida Gulf Coast had to drop down then to the losers’ bracket and play their way back in to the championship game, which they did successfully with a 3-2 win over the defending conference champions from North Florida.
Then, in the championship game, Stetson beat FGCU again by a score of 3-1, with the day’s final match at the 1-line being called off with the outcome decided.
Stetson’s 5th-seeded pair of Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Carly Perales won in the final in straight sets, making them the only pair of the tournament to finish with an unblemished 3-0 record.
Now for Stetson it becomes a waiting game to find out if they’ll return to the NCAA tournament for the second-straight year. The selection of 8 teams will be announced on April 30th, and while most of the east region’s contenders are done with their regular seasons, there is still a lot of volleyball to play on the west coast that could impact those nominations.
Key Considerations:
- Mercer finished the best season in program history with .@StetsonBeacha 5-0 loss on Sunday morning to North Florida. The two teams split their regular-season series. When Katarina Raicevic and Courtney Miller of North Florida beat Tori Penrod and Emily Krogman (21-15, 21-17) at the line, that gave the Mercer pair their first lost in 2 years at the ASUN tournament. Mercer’s season ends at 5-2, while North Florida wraps at 14-14 after a 24-9 season last year.
- Stetson has now appeared in 5-straight ASUN Championship finals, while this was FGCU’s second such appearance.
- Stetson will be the only team out of the ASUN with a chance at a 2017 NCAA Championship invite.
Leave a Reply