Haverhill, MA (October 18, 2017) – The Northern Essex Community College volleyball team will represent Region XXI in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Regional Tournament at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA on Saturday October 21.

The no. 5 seeded Northern Essex Knights will play the no. 4 seeded Bergen (NJ) Community College Bulldogs at 10:00a.m. in the regional play-in game. The winner of that match will advance to play in a 12:00pm contest against the top seed, Northampton (PA) Community College. The regional championship match is scheduled to be played at 4:00p.m. Saturday. All games will be webcast through the Bucks County Community College website.

The Knights and Bulldogs have not met this season however, they do have two common opponents: Community College of Rhode Island and Community College of Morris, both with similar results. The Knights fell to CCRI 3-0 on September 16^th and were victorious over Morris by a 3-1 score on October 7^th. Bergen also fell to CCRI by a similar 3-0 score on August 26^th and beat Morris 3-0 on September 21^st.

"We are excited to advance into regionals and fought hard all season to earn our sport. We plan to enter with some heat and look forward to a great tournament" said head coach Monica Reum.

Leading the Knights defensive effort into the tournament are sophomore libero and captain Brittany Birolini (Dracut, MA) who has 101 digs over the teams 14 matches. Offensively freshman Amanda Forgetta (Mallabar, FL) has 103 kills and freshman Alison Spampinato (Salem, NH) has 29 service aces.

The winner of the Region XIX tournament will advance to host the NJCAA District Tournament on Saturday October 28^th.