Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Volleyball team begins play in the 2017 Skyline Conference Championship on Tuesday night with a First Round match at fourth seeded College of Mount Saint Vincent. Live Stats and Video are available for those who cannot attend the 7:00 p.m. contest at the Peter Jay Sharp Center in Riverdale, N.Y.
 
At A Glance: The Knights won five of their final six regular season matches and enter Tuesday's match at 14-18 overall. The Mount had a five match winning streak stopped in the regular season finale, a five set loss to St. Joseph's-L.I., that secured it the fifth seed in the Conference Championship.
 
Mount Saint Mary features six players with at least 100 kills on the season, led by a team-high 174 from sophomore Morgan Burke (Ringwood, N.J.). Junior Nicole Spinelli (Wantagh, N.Y.) has put away 162 winners for the Knights and is followed by 126 from Madelyn Barberan (Fishkill, N.Y.), 125 from Megan Williams (Glenmont, N.Y.), 118 from Ally Klesin (Glendale, N.Y.) and 111 from Danielle Kralik (Bedford Hills, N.Y.). Kralik leads the team in kills per set (2.09) is second on the team behind Spinelli (.250) in attack percentage.
 
Spinelli leads the team in service aces with 61 through the regular season and is tied for the team lead in total blocks, joining Burke with 50. Williams has contributed 44 total blocks for the Knights entering Tuesday's First Round.
 
Senior Julimar Figueroa (Dorado, Puerto Rico) leads the team in digs with 396 and digs per set with just under four per frame and is second on the team in service aces with 55. Junior Kim Gries (Hicksville, N.Y.) has handed out 727 assists, 7.82 per set, and is coming off a career-high 50 helpers against St. Joseph's-L.I. on Saturday.
 
Among the Skyline Conference leaders, Gries paces the league in total assists and is second in helpers per set, while Figueroa has lifted the most digs in the league and is third in digs per set. Spinelli sits third in total aces and fourth in aces per set heading into Tuesday's contest.

Scouting The Dolphins: Mount Saint Vincent begins play in the Conference Championship with a 16-13 overall record, but has dropped each of its last four outings. The Dolphins' last win came in a 3-0 sweep against Yeshiva on October 22.
 
Tara Maloney leads the Mount Saint Vincent offensive attack with 371 kills, good for just over four per set, and paces the team with 248 digs. Maloney leads the conference in kills and is nearly a full kill better than anyone else in the conference in kills per set.
 
Nicole Henderson has handed out a team-high 690 assists, good for better than seven per frame, and holds the team lead in service aces with 55. Henderson ranks third in the Skyline Conference in service aces per set and fourth in assists per set.
 
Dez Brown holds the team lead in total blocks with 43 entering Tuesday's tilt and is sixth in the conference in blocks per set, with just over a half block per frame.
 
2017 Matchup: The Dolphins posted a 3-0 sweep in Riverdale on October 8, topping the Knights 25-18, 25-12, 25-11. Barberan and Spinelii led the Mount with five kills apiece with Gries leading the team with 16 assists and Figueroa lifting a team-high 11 digs.
 
Maloney put away a match-high 16 kills for the Dolphins, hitting .424, with Henderson handing out match-high 32 assists. Mount Saint Vincent finished the match hitting .365 as a team, committing just nine errors in 74 attempts.
 
Championship History: Since 2004, the Mount has earned a berth in the Skyline Championship in 10 straight seasons and 11 of the past 13 years. The Mount has advanced to the Skyline Conference Championship Final in five of the last seven seasons, including in 2012 when it won conference crown and in 2015 when it fell to Mount Saint Vincent.  
 
The Knights and Dolphins have hooked up in the Conference Championship just three times before Tuesday with the Knights taking two of three contests. The last meeting came in the 2015 final with the Dolphins winning in four sets. Kayla Kurka paced the Knights with a 11 kills and a .308 attack percentage, with Williams adding nine winners.
 
Mount Saint Vincent was led by 21 kills from Ashleigh Scozzari, who hit .366 in the match, and received 12 winners from Maria Leineweber. Henderson handed out 37 assists for the Dolphins and was one of three players with two service aces.
 
What's At Stake: The winner of Tuesday's match will advance to the semifinal round for a date with top-seeded Farmingdale State. The Rams completed the conference schedule at a perfect 10-0, topping the Knights in four sets and outlasting the Dolphins in five frames.