The evening began with the team taking its official NCAA Championship picture before they went on to enjoy dinner. The events of the banquet then kicked off with a "Road to the Championship" highlight video of all eight teams playing this weekend.
From there, two student-athletes from each institution stood before the crowd of nearly 400 to recap their season. Seniors Kim Giaquinto and Lauren Torvi represented Springfield College and drew plenty of laughs from the crowd with their poem about the Pride's season.
The night capped off with Torvi and Tessa Smolinski each winning major awards. Torvi was honored as an AVCA First Team All-America, becoming just the second player in program history to earn the award. Smolinski was then surprised with the prestigious Elite 89 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships. Smolinski's GPA is 4.0.
Moira Long will enter her second season as head women's volleyball coach in the fall of 2012. Long wasted little time putting her stamp on the program, taking the Pride to the NCAA Championship Elite Eight in 2011.
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