Purple Knights Set For 2017 ECC Volleyball Championship Tournament

West Babylon, N.Y. – The bracket for the East Coast Conference Volleyball Championship was finalized after the conclusion of regular season play on Sunday. Molloy College earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament and will host the four-team bracket on Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18 at Quealy Gymnasium on their Rockville Centre, N.Y. campus.

Home court advantage goes to Molloy after the Lions clinched the first-ever ECC Regular Season Championship in program history. Molloy put together a remarkable turnaround season on the court, improving their record from 6-24 in 2016 to a current mark of 23-5 (12-2 ECC). The Lions surpassed the 20 win total for the first time in program history and also will have their first winning season since 1998. This is also the first ECC Championship appearance for Molloy since the 2008 season when eight teams made the bracket instead of four.

Molloy's semifinal opponent will be No. 4 Bridgeport (12-15, 8-6 ECC). Unlike Molloy, the Purple Knights are no stranger to the postseason, making their ECC-leading 15th straight conference tournament appearance. Bridgeport is looking for their fifth ECC title in six years after having a streak of four straight championships snapped a season ago.

During the regular season, the two schools split their two matches with each winning on their home courts. Molloy swept Bridgeport, 3-0, in their meeting  

LIU Post (28-4, 12-2 ECC), who shared the ECC Regular Season Championship with Molloy (also a program first), is the No. 2 seed. The Pioneers are back in the tournament for the 14th consecutive season and are still in search of their first-ever ECC title.

The Pioneers' semifinal opponent will be their Northern Boulevard rival, NYIT. The Bears (24-7, 10-4) are attempting to repeat as ECC Champions after ending a 26 year championship drought in 2016.

LIU Post swept the season series between the two rivals, although each victory came in hard fought five set matches.

The tournament will start on Friday, November 17 with the Bridgeport vs. Molloy matchup at 5:00 p.m. NYIT vs. LIU Post will follow at 7:30 p.m. The winners of the semifinal matchups will move on to the final on Saturday, November 18 at 5:00 p.m.

All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the ECC Network website and ECC Network app on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming devices. To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow us at @ECCsports.  Tournament recaps, highlights, interviews, and box scores will also be available on www.eccsports.org at the tournament specific web page which can be found by clicking here.

2017 ECC Volleyball Championship at Molloy College
Semifinals - Friday, November 17
No. 4 Bridgeport vs. No. 1 Molloy - 5:00 P.M.
No. 3 NYIT vs. No. 2 LIU Post - 7:30 P.M.

Final - Saturday, November 18
Winner Semifinal One vs. Winner Semifinal Two - 5:00 P.M.