2016 CC Volleyball Preseason Poll
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College volleyball team has been picked 10th in the Centennial Conference preseason poll released Monday morning by the league office.
Swarthmore, which returns the 2015 CC Player of the Year (junior outside hitter Sarah Wallace) and Rookie of the Year (sophomore libero Sarah Girard) to a squad that reached the conference semifinals, was tabbed to top the league standings. The Garnet received 7 of 11 first-place votes and 93 total points in a poll of conference head coaches.
Johns Hopkins earned 85 points and collected one first-place vote to land second in the projection, while Franklin & Marshall got the other three first-place ballots and was third with 79 points. Defending CC champion McDaniel was forecasted to finish fourth with 76 points. The Green Terror were followed by Muhlenberg (74), Haverford (51), Gettysburg (49), Washington College (36), Dickinson (33), Ursinus (17), and Bryn Mawr (12).
Ursinus returns the core of its lineup in an effort to rebound from a difficult season that saw them finish 5-18 overall and 0-10 in CC competition. Junior outside hitter Allison Raff is coming off a strong campaign in which she ranked 10th in the conference in digs per set (4.00) and 12th in kills per set (2.98); she enters the second half of her career with a remarkably balanced stat line of 455 kills and 454 digs.
Senior setter Emily van Mulbregt was 14th in the CC in both assists (326) and assists per set (4.41) in 2015 and will facilitate the offense, while sophomore libero Sydney Gonzalez, who placed second on the team in digs (139) and digs per set (3.76) as a rookie, will anchor the defense. Classmate Grace LaDelfa tallied 65 kills and tied for the team lead with 20 blocks last season.
The Bears will also hope for contributions from a four-member freshman class that includes outside hitter Lauren Novotny, middle blockers Miranda Foster and Lydia Pierce, and setter/outside hitter Kelly Piotrowicz.
Ursinus tees up the 2016 season on Friday, September 2 with a match against Alvernia, the first of four contests at Moravian's Greyhound Premiere Invitational.