Volleyball places 11th in National Tournament with win over Queensborough

Rockland Volleyball, in its first ever National Tournament appearance, placed 11th overall with a 5-set victory over familiar Region 15 opponent Queensborough Community College on Friday afternoon. The Hawks began the tournament as the #11 seed and lost 3-0 to Butler County Community College from Butler, PA in the opening round Thursday. Now playing in the  back draw bracket, Rockland was faced with another tough opponent in Raritan Valley Community College from New Jersey. Rockland battled with Raritan but lost in straight sets. The Hawks played long 3 sets, which began with a 1st set loss, 28-30.

The tournament moved into Saturday which is when Rockland would face off against the only other 0-2 team in the tournament, Queensborough Community College. In it's 3 previous match-ups this season, QCC was victorious over Rockland, most recently in the District Tournament when the Tigers rallied to win 3-1 after losing the first set. In Friday's 11th place game, the Hawks got off to a great start winning the first set 31-29 which was the longest set of the season. In the 2nd set, QCC was poised to tie things up with a 24-18 set lead before Rockland would rally off 6 straight points to win 26-24. Queensborough would not go down easy. After winning the 3rd set 25-13, the Tigers made an enormous comeback in the 4th set when down 24-17 to win 26-24.

With the 9th place match over, all eyes in the building were on the 5th set of the Rockland match. The Hawks would score the first 6 points of the 5th set and would not relinquish the lead and go on to win 15-7 and to secure 11th place. Brianna Almonte and Gabrielle Faulcon led all players in kills, with 20 and 19 respectively. Kendra Faulcon led all players with an amazing 47 assists. Congratulations on an amazing season!