By By Olson Barthelemy

PRIDE CLIMBS

The Pride moved up one spot in the East Region to fifth and four spots overall to 71st in the latest RichKern.com/AVCA Division I Regional Computer Index. Both rankings are the highest for the Pride all season. Maryland, Duke, North Carolina and Winthrop are the four teams in front of the Pride in the East Region.

PLAYOFFS

Going into its final game of the regular season against Northeastern University on Saturday, the Pride is in a comfortable position. The team controls its own destiny, and with a win against Northeastern, it will also win the regular season Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title. This would give the Pride the right to host the conference tournament as the highest seed.

The Pride is cognizant of the importance of hosting the tournament, but is prepared to play on the road. Although last weekend’s loss to Towson was extremely close, it put some pressure on the Pride to beat Delaware and Northeastern next weekend to maintain its first place position and host the CAA tournament. The Pride is well suited for competition away from the Physical Fitness Center, as it is 8-2 on the road this year and at neutral sites.

FAREWELL,SENIORS

The Pride’s four-game win against Delaware marked the last regular season home game for senior outside hitter Tessa Sphar and senior defensive specialist Jessica Levy. Sphar is concluding a Pride career that saw her name in the record books for many accomplishments. Sphar recently became the fifth Pride player to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career.

Reminiscing of her time with the team, Levy recalled those things that happened off the court.

“One of my favorite memories of this season was when we all went to Medieval Times while we were in California and Coach Kalafer got “knighted” by the king, she said. “It was a classic moment. I remember going to Puerto Rico, twice, and besides the gym being really hot, the weather, the beach, and everything else was amazing.”