Salisbury University adopted its current name on July 1, 2001, after previously operating as Maryland State Normal School (1925-34), Maryland State Teachers College (1934-63), Salisbury State College (1963-88), and Salisbury State University (1988-2001). In honor of the silver anniversary of the institution's rechristening, we're spinning the "Gulls Greatest Hits" and revisiting each varsity team's biggest moment in the Salisbury University era.
Volleyball | Nov. 11, 2012 – NCAA Division III Regional Final vs. Eastern
Setting the Stage
While more recognizable in Salisbury history as a coaching legend on the softball diamond,
Margie Knight authored just as impressive a resume on the volleyball court. Taking the reins in the fall of 1997, Knight kept the train rolling with a third straight 20-win season, then took the Sea Gulls to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 1998. SU returned to the big dance six more times from 2000 to 2011, reaching the regional final in 2009, but could never get past the first weekend. With change on the horizon, Knight knew 2012 would be her last best shot at an elusive regional championship.
The Sea Gulls burst out of the gate by taking 24 of their first 25 matches, highlighted by a string of 20 wins in a row from Sept. 7 to Oct. 13. Barely challenged in Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) play, SU bullied its way to a fifth league title in six years, sweeping Mary Washington and Marymount (Va.) to punch its eighth ticket to the national stage at 34-3.
Salisbury earned the right to host the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament and opened with a sweep of Mount St. Mary (N.Y.) before avenging a prior loss to Richard Stockton, 3-1, in the regional semis. For just the second time, the Gulls stood one step away from making the national quarterfinals. Standing in their way was an experienced Eastern side, fresh off a Final Four appearance the year prior, who made quick work of Baruch and Stevenson to set up an electric regional final.
Key Faces
Setter
Carley Todd and middle blocker
Chelsea Glowacki formed a senior duo that could stand toe-to-toe with the nation's best quarterback-receiver combos. Todd, who also repeated as CAC Player of the Year, dished out 1,221 assists (9.25 A/S) while almost quietly amassing 254 kills at a .317 swing rate, becoming SU's first-ever American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) First-Team All-American. Glowacki, meanwhile, made All-America honorable mention for the third straight year after hammering down 311 kills (2.41 K/S) with 302 digs and 105 blocks, establishing a new program record with 467 career stuffs.
Rounding out Salisbury's "big three" was freshman outside hitter
Ashlyn Tapley, whose team-leading 395 kills and 330 digs garnered her own honorable mention nod and gave SU three All-Americans in one season for the first time. Two others joined Todd, Glowacki, and Tapley on the All-CAC rolls: outside
Julie Poston racked up 181 kills and 27 blocks, while middle
Kelly Vieira posted 264 kills and 380 digs. Defensive specialist
Michelle Meehan, meanwhile, patrolled the back line with a team-leading 395 digs.
Knight, who reached 400 career victories with an Oct. 27 triumph over Virginia Wesleyan, captured CAC Coach of the Year laurels for the fourth time and earned her second Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year prize. Flanking her on the sidelines was an up-and-coming coach in her own right,
Melissa Stansbury, who was dubbed AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year at season's end.
How It Happened
Maggs Gym was packed to the gills with nearly 500 spectators, and the Sea Gulls gave them a reason to rock by storming out to an early two-set advantage. Vieira and Poston teamed up for a block to secure the opening fixture 25-16, while Todd accounted for nine points (six assists, three kills) as SU cruised to a 25-19 win in the second.
Winners of 30-plus matches five years in a row, the Eagles kept their cool and quieted the crowd by taking the next two sets with relative ease. EU netted four of the final five points to snag the third 25-22, then in the fourth Erin Hillman fed Lauren Sproles for a kill to lock down a 25-19 margin and force a decisive fifth set.
After spotting Eastern three of the first four points,
Mattie Smith responded with a kill to spark a 7-1 extended run to put Salisbury up 8-4. The Eagles answered with the next two, but the Gulls punched back with four straight, including three via Tapley strikes, to make it 12-6. The two sides then traded the final six points of the match, with Todd feeding Smith for the kill to clinch at 15-9.
Todd finished the match with a triple-double at 35 assists, 15 digs, and 10 kills, while Tapley landed a match-high 17 kills and Glowacki went for 11 kills and six blocks. After the final handshake line, senior captains Todd and Glowacki broke their celebratory hug only to receive the regional championship trophy and hand it to Knight, who hoisted it high for all to see as the Sea Gulls snapped their first-ever "ticket punched" picture.
Postgame Comments from HC Margie Knight
"I'm pretty speechless, which is rare. We had our backs up against the wall, and the fight we put up in that fifth set…now we're holding the trophy and it's just fabulous. For our program, unbelievable; for our fans, they were great and it was just a great day, I'm enjoying the moment."
Aftermath
The regional title propelled Salisbury onto Division III's grandest stage at the national quarterfinals, hosted at the renowned DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College [where this author was a junior at the time] in Holland, Mich. The final eight was the end of the line for maroon and gold, who fought valiantly but ultimately fell in straight sets to Elmhurst, bringing an end to the Sea Gulls' best season with a 37-4 mark.
The quarterfinal run was also the swan song for Knight as head volleyball coach, as she stepped back from the program to focus exclusively on coaching softball at the end of the year; she led the Gulls on the diamond for eight more seasons through 2020. Knight finished her career with 1,251 varsity wins between the two programs and was inducted into the Salisbury University Athletics Hall of Fame as a coach in 2023, one year after her passing at the age of 66. She remains the only person enshrined in the SU Hall of Fame as both a player and coach.
Led by an All-CAC quartet of Meehan, Poston, Smith, and a future three-time All-American in
Katie Stouffer, Salisbury won 29 games and returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2013. Following a nine-year absence from the big dance, the Sea Gulls punched their ticket back in 2022 and have made the national bracket a program-record four years running. In 2023, after starting the year hosting the inaugural Margie Knight Classic tournament, SU broke its 11-year conference title drought by winning the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) Tournament in front of the hometown crowd at Maggs Gym.
Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with affiliate membership in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (football, men's & women's swimming), Coastal Lacrosse Conference (men's lacrosse), State University of New York Athletic Conference (field hockey), and Colonial Women's Golf Conference (women's golf). With over 500 student-athletes in 23 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the nation's most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, featuring dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on and off the field. The Sea Gulls have won a combined 23 team national championships, 26 individual national championships, and 213 conference championships, and have produced 54 Academic All-Americans.
To Make Tomorrow Yours at Salisbury University, and learn more about Sea Gull Athletics' tradition of excellence, visit SUSeaGulls.com or follow on social media @SUSeaGulls.
