While the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference is the primary league for thirteen of Penn State Altoona’s fourteen varsity sports teams, the Lions athletics department is also a member of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
The ECAC is a larger college athletics organization that encompasses schools from NCAA Divisions I, II, and III. It sponsors over thirty men’s and women’s varsity sports that include over 110,000 total student-athletes. In short, the ECAC offers opportunities for competition and recognition for student-athletes beyond schools’ primary conferences.
One of those opportunities is the ECAC’s annual postseason championship tournaments. Teams that are not selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament in their respective sports have the chance to earn a berth into an ECAC tournament.
To meet the criteria for gaining entry in an ECAC tournament, a team must have satisfied each of the following by the end of its season schedule: declared for inclusion in an ECAC tournament, achieved an overall record of .500 or greater, and did not earn a berth into the NCAA tournament. The teams who meet those criteria are put into a pool, and an ECAC championship committee selects the cream of the crop to compete in one of their playoff tournaments.
Through the end of April, three Penn State Altoona teams had the privilege of being selected for ECAC postseason berths: men’s basketball, men’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
Upon losing in the AMCC Tournament’s semifinal round in Feb., the Penn State Altoona men’s basketball team was picked to make its first ECAC postseason appearance since the 2008-09 season. The Lions had ended the AMCC Tournament with a 14-13 overall record and were having their best season in nearly a decade, and entry into the ECAC Tournament allowed the team to continue playing while most other teams in the country were not.
The Lions men’s soccer team also lost in the AMCC semifinals after having an excellent season. The team exited the AMCC playoffs with an 11-7-1 overall record before being chosen to compete in the ECAC Tournament. It was Penn State Altoona men’s soccer’s eighth appearance in an ECAC postseason tournament, the most of any varsity team at the campus.
Women’s volleyball earned its fifth-ever ECAC Tournament berth after falling in the AMCC championship match. The Lady Lions had a 13-13 overall record, including an excellent 8-1 record in the AMCC. The appearance in the ECAC Tournament was another success accomplished by the 2016 women’s volleyball squad.