Video coverage of the first two rounds will be available on the conference website, while the championship will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
College of Charleston concluded the regular season with sweeps over The Citadel and UNC-Greensboro, securing the SoCon regular season title with the league's best record of 14-2. 2011 is the 11th straight season that the Cougars have won either the regular season or conference tournament championship.
The Cougars were incredibly efficient in their final two games, led by the play of Elyse Chubb. Chubb was named the SoCon Offensive Player of the Week after hitting .710 in those two games, including .800 with 12 kills against The Citadel.
SoCON TOURNAMENT
The Cougars have won more SoCon Tournament titles (6) than any other school. CofC also has the league's best winning percentage (.806) in the tournament, making the championship game each of the last nine years.
The Cougars have made appearances in 12 SoCon Tournaments and appeared in the semifinals 11 times.
Last season, College of Charleston went 15-1 in the regular season before losing to Georgia Southern in the championship game. The Cougars won their last SoCon tournament in 2009 at Furman.
College of Charleston remains the only SoCon squad to ever win a match in the NCAA tournament. The Cougars advanced to the second round in 2005 after a win over North Carolina in the first round.
THE MATCHUP
College of Charleston is 12-1 against Elon all-time. The Cougars swept the Phoenix, 3-0, in the team's only matchup this season at CofC. Elyse Chubb led the Cougars with 10 kills on just 17 attempts for an attack percentage of .588.
SCOUTING THE PHOENIX
Elon made it into the tournament as the fourth seed on the last weekend after ousting UNC-Greensboro and The Citadel.
Two Elon freshman were selected to the SoCon All-Freshman team in Kris Harris and Chanelle Smith. Harris ranks seventh in the conference in hitting (.331) and is second on the team in blocks (0.85/set). Smith is second on the team in kills (260) and kills per set (2.68). She has also recorded 2.40 digs per set.
Caroline Lemke is Elon's senior leader and kills leader with 2.80 per set. She has also tallied a team-best 0.86 blocks per set.
FOUR COUGARS ON ALL-SOCON SQUADS
Senior middle blockers Elyse Chubb and Sarah Havel were named first team All-Conference selections, while freshman right-side hitter Sloane White earned Freshman of the Year and second team All-Conference honors. Freshman Lizzie Theesfeld was selected to the All-Freshman team.
A native of Peachtree City, Ga., Chubb earned her third straight first team All-Conference selection becoming just the fourth player in College of Charleston program history to earn that distinction in three of four years on the team. No other SoCon program has ever had more than three players with three first team selections. Chubb also won the SoCon Freshman of the Year award in 2008.
Chubb garnered SoCon weekly honors twice this season, this past week as the Offensive Player of the Week and an earlier selection as the Defensive Player of the Week. She finished the regular season with 331 kills and a hitting percentage of .318, a mark that ranks ninth in the conference. She is just six kills away from moving into 10th all-time in career kills in program history. Chubb is just one of two players in program history to have over 1,100 career kills, 400 career blocks and hit over .300.
Hailing from Carmel, Ind., Havel earned her second straight first team All-Conference selection and third All-Conference selection in her career after making the second team in 2009. In the team's last regular season match, Havel surpassed 1,000 kills for her career. She has amassed 309 kills this season for an average of 2.51 per set. Her 1.04 blocks per set led the conference for the second straight season.
A native of Indianapolis, Ind., White continued the Cougar tradition of exceptional play from freshman starters. After leading the team in kills with 334, she became the league-best seventh CofC player to win the Rayna Taylor Freshman of the Year Award. White won the SoCon Freshman of the Week award a league-best five times this season. Only three SoCon players have ever won more than five weekly honors in their career. White was named second team All-Conference and selected to the All-Freshman team. Along with hitting at a clip of .262, White averaged 1.01 digs per set and 0.63 blocks per set.
Coming to Charleston from Flower Mound, Texas, Theesfeld put together a solid freshman campaign as the Cougars' outside hitter. Theesfeld finished fourth on the team in kills with 2.05 per set and hit .280 on the season, earning a nod to the All-Freshman team. Theesfeld was solid in the Cougar rotation, making 2.39 digs per set from the back row and totaling seven double-doubles on the season.
GOING STREAKING
After wins over Furman and Wofford at home on Nov. 5-6, College of Charleston now holds a conference-best 20-match home conference winning streak, dating back to October 4, 2009, when the Cougars fell to Furman. The record for most consecutive home conference wins is 48, set by CofC from 2001-06.
College of Charleston is currently on a nine-match winning streak, the longest in the conference after Samford lost to Appalachian State in the season's final match.
CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOK
College of Charleston fans were tracking kills this season as Elyse Chubb and Sarah Havel both surpassed 1,000 for their career. They became the fifth pair of teammates to each play on the court with 1,000 kills together.
Chubb enters the tournament just six kills away from being in 10th place all-time with 1191 kills.
Havel is 19 blocks away from being in third place all-time in blocks.
Emily Shelton has tallied 576 digs this season. That currently ranks fourth for most digs in a season. She needs 627 total digs to move into third place.
