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)