BRISTOL, R.I.- The RWU Women's Volleyball Team defeated Western New England College 3-1 Saturday to win The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship. The Hawks improve to 21-10 on the season and earn the automatic bid into the NCAA National Tournament for the first time in the program's 28-year history.

The Hawks earned the victory by the scores of 25-17, 16-25, 25-18 and 25-21. Played at the Alumni Healthful Living Center on the campus of WNEC, a large and energetic crowd witnessed RWU jump out to an early lead in the first set, forcing WNEC first-year head coach Kait Kozak to call a timeout down 9-5. RWU stretched the lead to 13-6 before taking its own timeout, up 16-12. Later, Hawks junior Brittney Sullivan (Nashua, N.H.) served four-straight points to give RWU the 25-17 win.

After cruising to the first set win, the Hawks came out relaxed in game two and quickly found themselves down, 11-6. A long serving run by WNEC junior setter Katharina Boes (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) stretched the lead to an insurmountable 20-7. A resilient Hawks' squad rallied for a 9-5 scoring run, but fell in the end, 25-16.

The third set was tight in the early going with RWU holding a very slim 15-14 lead midway through. After an RWU sideout, freshman Kelsee Loche (Millis, Mass.) forced WNEC into two timeouts while rattling off seven points from behind the service line. WNEC stopped the scoring streak, but the 23-14 deficit was too much to overcome giving RWU the 2-1 set advantage.

Determined to finish the match in game four, RWU raced to a 21-12 advantage, eventually leading to the championship-winning kill by freshman setter Emily Lebowitz (Coventry, Conn.). The TCCC Rookie of the Year also contributed 36 assists in the match along with seven digs.

RWU junior libero Jill Hurd (Sunapee, N.H.), who finished second in the voting for TCCC Libero of the Year to WNEC junior Marci Egbert (Wayne, N.J.), tallied an RWU all-time single match record 41 digs in the four games. Egbert meanwhile totaled 22 to lead the Golden Bears.

Offensively, WNEC senior outside hitter Rachel Cervone (West Springfield, Mass.) led all players with 14 kills in the match. Junior middle hitter Rebekah Dion (Old Saybrook, Conn.) notched 11 kills in four games for RWU, while her teammate, freshman Kelsey Twarog (Barkhamsted, Conn.), totaled 11 kills on the outside in three games.

RWU entered the conference playoffs as the No. 4 seed with an 8-2 regular season TCCC record. WNEC held the No. 2 seed, going 9-1 during the regular season, including a 3-1 win over RWU, Sept. 19. RWU advanced to the championship with 3-0 sweeps over No. 5 seed University of New England and No. 1 seed Endicott College, while WNEC arrived after defeating Gordon College, 3-0, and Colby-Sawyer College, 3-1

WNEC falls to 26-9 overall and awaits a probable invite to the ECAC New England Div. III Tournament. The 26 wins for the Golden Bears marks a program all-time high.

For the Hawks, this marks their second-straight 20+ win season while competing in the TCCC Finals twice in the last four years. This is the first conference championship for the RWU Volleyball Program since 1998, but without an automatic bid at that time the team did not compete in the NCAA Tournament.

The 2009 tournament begins Thursday with RWU playing at the regional site of New York University in New York, N.Y. The Hawks will face New Paltz State for the first-round match. The full bracket featuring a total of 62 teams is currently posted on NCAA.com.