ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: #BeaconAOTY Round of 16 set, voting to begin at 11 a.m.

Luke Modrovsky, Editor-in-Chief|April 10, 2019

Madi Hummer

Editor’s Note: Ryan Balliet, tournament assistant, contributed to this report.

Action concluded in the Round of 30 late yesterday as 8,798 votes were cast to kickoff the tournament.

The men’s side saw 4,165 votes on the Twitter polls while the women’s pairing saw a slightly higher 4,633 tallies.

In the Round of 30, the tournament saw a total of 10 upsets. Sarah Carlini (women’s lacrosse) pulled off the biggest upset as a No. 26 seed when she defeated No. 7 Jordan Vasarkovy (women’s tennis) by securing 53 percent of the vote in that pairing.

Heading into the Round of 16, the women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse and football teams lead the pack with four athletes remaining. Field hockey, men’s ice hockey and wrestling have three, women’s basketball, softball, women’s ice hockey, men’s basketball and baseball have two, while women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, men’s tennis and men’s lacrosse all have one representative remaining.

Both No. 1 and No 2 seeds will see their first action in the Round of 16. Defending men’s champion Marcus Robinson (men’s basketball) will take on upset-minded No. 17 Jack Fisher (baseball). No. 2 Jose Tabora (football) will take on No. 15 Tommy Bowen (men’s basketball).

On the women’s side, top seeded Marywood transfer Gabrielle Giordano (women’s basketball/softball) will see her first action as she will be tasked with defeating No. 16 Aislinn Speranza (women’s soccer). No. 2 Haley Gayoski (field hockey) will face No. 18 Ashley Burkhardt (women’s lacrosse), who also pulled off an upset like her teammate Carlini.

Defending women’s champion No. 9 Gracen Staunton cruised over No. 24 Erin Volutza (women’s tennis) with 65 percent of the vote.

In the tightest match-up of the round, No. 23 Phil Erickson (men’s ice hockey) edged No. 10 Camry Huff (men’s soccer). Erickson won the poll outright even though the poll showed both athletes tallying 50 percent of 299 votes. Twitter rounds poll percentages displayed on each tweet.

The updated bracket with Round of 16 pairing is available here: 2018-19 #BeaconAOTY Bracket

The field was announced on Sunday in a selection show posted to “Wilkes Now” on YouTube.

The champion of both categories will be featured in a full page spread in the final edition of The Beacon on April 16.

Tournament Schedule:

  • Round of 16: Wednesday, April 10
  • Quarterfinal Round: Thursday, April 11
  • Semifinal Round: Friday, April 12
  • Championship Round: Saturday, April 13
  • All polls conducted using the @WilkesBeacon Twitter page.
  • Polls will begin each day at 11:00 a.m. and will conclude at 11:00 p.m.

For coverage of the tournament, check out the following Twitter accounts:

Additional coverage will be provided through media partner 90.7 WCLH — Wilkes University radio on Facebook through @WCLH_radio and @WCLHsports on Twitter and Instagram.