Belmont Abbey Tops Women’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll

Belmont Abbey Tops Women’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll

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HIGH POINT, N.C. - Belmont Abbey enters the 2014 season as the favorite in Conference Carolinas after winning the league title each of the last two years. The Crusaders finished the 2013 season with school records for wins (28), winning streak (22) and home victories (17). The Crusaders won all 17 home matches and have lost only once inside the Wheeler Center in the past two seasons, posting a record of 26-1.

 

Belmont Abbey will begin the 2014 season with a 24 match home winning streak. Belmont Abbey led the conference in attendance again in 2013, as an average of 315 patrons came to watch the Crusaders in action. A school record 900 people turned out for the Conference Carolinas Tournament championship match. In the last two years, the Abbey has posted a 54-9 record, two Conference Carolinas Championships and two NCAA Tournament berths, both firsts in program history.

 

Junior Hannah Schellenberg, the 2013 Conference Carolinas Player of the Year and 2012 Freshman of the Year, returns as the top offensive threat in the league. She led the Abbey in every major offensive category and was the conference leader in kills, kills per set and points per set.

 

Coming off the most successful seasons since becoming NCAA Division II members in 2010, the King University women's volleyball team has been selected to finish second in the Conference Carolinas Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Tornado finished the 2013 season with an overall record of 32-5, going 17-1 in league play. The Tornado rolled off 19 consecutive wins before falling to Belmont Abbey College, their only conference blemish of the year.

 

King returns nearly everyone for first year head coach Morris Cephas, including back-to-back Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year Payton Tipton. The senior led the league, and ranked second in NCAA Division II in service aces (0.69 per set) while leading the conference with 531 digs. Offensively, setter Olivia Underwood returns for her junior campaign after leading the league with an average of 9.54 assists per set. She will be setting to fellow first team All-Conference performer Summer Kremer who finished second in Conference Carolinas with 399 total kills and 3.38 kills per set from her outside hitter position.

 

Barton College, who finished third in the preseason poll, returns 11 players from last year’s squad that finished tied for third in the regular-season, including nine players who appeared in at least 75 percent of the team’s sets played. Senior middle blocker Melissa Cochran who was a 2013 All-Conference and All-State selection will lead the Lady Bulldogs this season. Cochran led the league in blocks and ranked among the top five in points per set, kills per set and hitting percentage.  

 

Limestone, Mount Olive, Erskine, North Greenville, Pfeiffer, Converse, and Lees-McRae rounded out the rest of the pre-season poll respectively.

 

Conference Carolinas Women’s Volleyball Preseason Poll

(# of First Place Votes in Parenthesis)

Belmont Abbey

90

(9)

King  

80

(1)

Barton

65

 

Limestone

62

 

Mount Olive

62

 

Erskine

53

 

North Greenville

34

 

Pfeiffer

34

 

Converse 

32

 

Lees-McRae

28