WILLIMANTIC, Conn.- Middle blocker Emma Sousa (Coventry) has been named to the Division III All-New England team by the New England Women’s Volleyball Association (NEWVA).

The 5-foot-10 inch Sousa was one of 18 selections to the team, earning a spot on the six-player honorable mention team. Ten different institutions were represented with an least one selection, with only two of the 18 picks coming from teams not ranked in the most recent New England Top Ten. Eastern is rated seventh.

Sousa, the top all-around player in the Little East Conference, becomes the 30th NEWVA All-New England pick for Eastern since 1988 but is the first to make the team since Michelle Cunningham and Jen Butts were selected in 1998.

Through the regular season, Sousa was the conference’s runaway point leader, with 695 (points are calculated by adding kills, service aces, block solos, and half of block assist total). She is also a three-time conference Offensive Player-of-the-Week and named to all-tournament teams at Endicott and MIT. This year, Sousa has set a season program record with 110 block assists, with her team-leading 573 kills the second-most in a season in program history. She also leads Eastern in attack percentage (.324), block solos (30) and total blocks (140).

In six games (two matches) in the conference tournament this past weekend, Sousa led Eastern with 26 kills, a .345 attack percentage, four block assists and five total blocks and served 34 balls with just one error (.971 per cent).

During the season, she had at least ten kills in 30 of 39 matches, attacked at .400 or better 13 times, and nine times had five or more blocks, She set personal career-bests with 25 kills against UMass Boston Sept. 23, a .606 attack percentage (21 kills with one error on 33 attempts) against Colby-Sawyer College Oct. 14, and with 11 blocks against Western New England College Oct. 23.

Eastern (30-9) qualified for its second straight NCAA tournament Saturady by repeating as playoff champion of the Little East Conference and will open play in the eight-team New England Regional Tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. against Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Endicott College (25-12).

The tournament semifinals are scheduled for Friday. The Eastern-Endicott winner faces the Mount Ida-Coast Guard victor at 4:30 p.m., with the other semifinal to follow at 7 p.m. The final is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. The eight regional winners advance the Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA, where the final three rounds will be contested Nov. 16-18.

Eastern, a winner of 30 matches for the 12th time in program history (first since 1998), is making its 15th NCAA tournament appearance – the most by any New England Division III institution. MIT is making its 13th appearance, Bridgewater its seventh, Coast Guard its fourth, Amherst, Emmanuel and Mount Ida their third and Endicott its second.

All except MIT qualified automatically by winning a conference championship. The No. 2-ranked team in New England, MIT was beaten in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference semifinals by sixth-ranked Springfield College. Ranked No. 1 in New England, Coast Guard downed Springfield in the final.

Among teams in the New England regional behind Coast Guard and MIT, Amherst is rated fourth, Eastern seventh and Endicott 14th.

Against other teams in the regional, Eastern swept Endicott Sept. 14 at the Endicott College Quad and was swept by MIT Oct. 14 when the teams squared off at the MIT Quad.

Under head coach Jolie Ward last year, Eastern was swept by host SUNY Cortland in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The team’s last NCAA tournament win came in 1998 under former head coach Tom York. The Warriors swept Middlebury College in the opening round but was beaten in the regional semifinals by Wellesley College in three games.

In four seasons under Ward, Eastern is 93-55, 79-35 over the last three years. The Warriors have won or shared the conference regular-season title each of the past three years, advancing to the tournament final in each of those three years.