Gaston College beach volleyball sets school history by qualifying for NJCAA national championships

Gaston College has had an athletic program for 10 seasons separated by 50 years.

On Friday, the school's beach volleyball team accomplished a first in school history by qualifying for the 2023 National Junior College Athletic Association championships that will be held April 20 to 22 at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, Fla.

It's the first Rhinos' team to qualify for NJCAA championships in history.

To make their historic appearance, Gaston College coach Rachel Noreika's team won a pair of nailbiting matches at Friday's Region 10 championships at Sandhills Community College in Southern Pines.

The Rhinos defeated Wake Tech 3-2, lost to eventual Region 10 champion Richard Bland 5-0 before edging Bryant & Stratton, Va., 3-2 in the 3rd place match.

In the opening match, the teams of Naomi Hilliard-Cristina Rotola (24-26, 21-14, 15-12), Emma Downey-Kristy Seifert (21-19, 21-15) and Carli Phillips-Bianca Bowland (21-11, 14-21, 15-5) took victories.

In the 3rd place match, the teams Hilliard-Rotola (21-11, 21-12), Phillips-Bowland (21-13, 21-14) and Leilani Nolasco-Cameryn Reavis (forfeit) took victories.

The wins by the Phillips-Bowland team gave them a team-high 11 victories this season.

"I'm really proud of the way the team showed up on Championship Friday," Noreika said. "We battled through rain, wind and cold temps all day without complaining to not only beat Wake Tech, who we split with in regular season play, but also beat Bryant & Stratton, who beat us in all three previous meetings.
"Our focus the past few weeks has been on bringing the energy to match our expectations and despite difficult playing conditions, each and every team member gave 100 percent emotionally and physically and it couldn't have been a better ending to the regular season."

In the school's first eight seasons as an athletic program from 1964-65 to 1971-72, the 1971 basketball team came the closest to advancing to a national tournament when it lost in that year's Region 10 championship game.

Earlier this school year, Rhinos' cross country runner Victoria Perez became the first student-athlete in Gaston College history to qualify for an individual NJCAA championship; Perez finished 134th in the 2022 NJCAA women's championships and was the highest-finishing Region 10 finisher.