POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (November 7, 2009) -- The 2009 Liberty League volleyball tournament championship came down to a match-up of the top two seeds, Clarkson University and Vassar College. Instead of a tournament sweep and league title in front of its home crowd, Vassar was upended by top seed Clarkson 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-17.

Clarkson took home its first ever Liberty League title, going 3-1 in the tournament and improving to 28-6 on the year. Vassar went 3-1 in the tournament for a second place finish, and is now 24-9. Skidmore College finished in third place (2-2), St. Lawrence fourth (2-2), and Union fifth (0-4). Click here for the complete Liberty League Championship results.

Tournament and league awards were announced as follows:

Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year: Melissa DeRan, Allison Busser (St. Lawrence)
Liberty League co-Player of the Year: Lauren Dinsdale (Skidmore), Abigail Rose (St. Lawrence)
Liberty League Rookie of the Year: Hilary Koenigs (Vassar)
Liberty League First-Team: Sara Artus (Clarkson), Alexandra Kamakas (St. Lawrence), Chloe McGuire (Vassar), Veronica Mynders (Union), Meredith Palmer (Skidmore), Jennsa Stock (Clarkson)
Liberty League Second Team: Amy Bavosa (Vassar), Jessica Lucky (St. Lawrence), Megan Mahon (Clarkson), Eve Richards (Union), Alison Schroder (Clarkson), Kelly Vershbow (Skidmore)

All-Tournament Team: Hilary Koenigs (Vassar), Jenna Stock (Clarkson), Lauren Dinsdale (Skidmore), Chloe McGuire (Vassar), Alexandra Kamakas (St. Lawrence), Rachel Ormsby (Union)
Tournament MVP: Sarah Artus (Clarkson)

Clarkson def. Vassar 3-1 ( 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-17)
Down two sets to one, the Brewers took a 4-2 lead on Clarkson in the fourth set on kills by three different players. Clarkson mounted a comeback, however, and took advantage of a succession of Vassar errors to take a 7-5 lead. Vassar tied the score at eight and was just one point behind for much of the set, but consistent tough digs and a merciless offensive attack from sophomore hitter Sarah Artus kept Clarkson on top. With a 21-17 lead, Clarkson rallied for four straight points to finish off the championship 25-17.

The first set of the match saw eight ties and four lead changes. After Clarkson pulled ahead 18-16 on a kill by Artus, Vassar scored four straight points to take a 20-18 lead. Clarkson cut the lead to 20-19, but the Brewers again strung off three points in a row and held on for the 25-22 win.

Artus slammed consecutive kills on the first two plays of the second set, pushing her team in front 4-0. Before Vassar could gather itself and make a run, Clarkson had increased its lead to 10-3 and limited the prospect of a Brewers comeback. Vassar inched closer behind a string of kills from Chloe McGuire and Amy Bavosaand cut the Clarkson lead to 20-18, but the Golden Knights finished the set with five straight points behind the service of senior Davanna Chetney to win 25-18 and knot the match at 1-1.

The match's pivotal third set was, in many ways, a match-up of two athletic hitters. Bavosa had powerful kills for her team's first two points, but Artus, not to be out-matched, responded to each Bavosa kill with one of her own. The set was tied at one, two, three, four and five, but a 3-0 run put Clarkson ahead 8-5, a lead it would not relinquish. A Bavosa kill cut the lead to 19-18, but Clarkson scored three of the next four, two of which were Artus kills, to stay ahead.

Bavosa led Vassar with 13 kills, while McGuire had 12 and Julianna Simon and Tess Johnson eight apiece. Junior Chelsea Mottern had 22 digs. Hilary Koenigs, McGuire and Bavosa had 14, 11 and 10 digs respectively. Koenigs paced the Brewers with 44 assists.

Artus finished off her MVP performance with 20 kills and a game-high 51 total attacks. Alison Schroeder led Clarkson with 21 digs, and Jenna Stock had 36 assists.

Vassar def. Skidmore 3-2 (19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13)
In a thrilling, five-game match full of intensity, pressure, and emotion, the Vassar College women's volleyball team pulled out a 3-2 win over Skidmore College (19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13) to keep their hopes of winning the 2009 Liberty League tournament alive.

The Brewers were led by the impressive hitting of freshman Chloe McGuire and sophomore Amy Bavosa, who had 19 and 17 kills, respectively. Freshman setter Hilary Koenigs continued her dominant play with 52 set assists and 13 digs. Seniors Tess Johnson and Sarah Sarah Potts contributed as well with 11 and 8 kills respectively. Chelsea Mottern led the team in digs with 15. For the Thoroughbreds, junior Meredith Palmer had 17 kills in the match and junior Becca Ormsby had 38 set assists. Freshman Carolyn Bottlier had a match-high 21 digs to go along with 9 kills.

In the decisive fifth game, the Thoroughbreds grabbed a quick 4-2 lead behind a kill and back-to-back aces from Bottelier. Vassar came back to tie the game at seven after kills from Johnson and Bavosa. With Skidmore leading 11-8, McGuire made a fierce kill followed by a service ace. The Thoroughbreds went ahead one final time, 13-11, before the Brewers took over and scored the final four points of the game off kills by Bavosa and Johnson to win 15-13.

The Thoroughbreds managed to force a fifth game after holding off a furious Vassar comeback in the fourth game. Skidmore built a solid 17-10 lead behind a number of kills from Palmer and sophomore outside hitter Kelley Vershbow. The Brewers used kills from McGuire, Bavosa and senior Potts as well as three straight service aces from Potts to cut the lead to 20-19. Skidmore managed to fend off the Brewers behind Palmer and Bottelier kills and pulled out a 25-21 win.

Neither team managed more than a two-point lead at point in the third game until the Brewers went ahead 23-19 behind kills from Bavosa and Potts and a McGuire service ace. The Brewers scored five of the last six points in the game to win 25-20 and hold a 2-1 lead.

In the second game, McGuire notched three straight kills to give the Brewers an early 5-4 lead. The two teams battled throughout the game before Vassar went ahead 19-15 behind a service ace from senior Jasmin Iskandar. The Thoroughbreds scored four straight points, including back-to-back service aces from senior libero Lauren Dinsdale, to tie the game at 19. Vassar again took control late in the game, using an impressive solo block from Koenigs to win the game 25-21.

Skidmore won the first game of the match, as the Brewers found themselves plagued by service and attack errors. The Thoroughbreds jumped ahead 16-10 after a Palmer block and kills from Bottelier and freshman Mallory Mendelsohn. Although Vassar managed to cut the lead to one, the Thoroughbreds took advantage of Vassar miscues and finished off the game, 25-19 with another impressive kill from Palmer.