SUWANEE, Ga. - The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference released the 2009 SCAC Volleyball Prospectus today. The prospectus includes schedules, standings, statistics, a complete list of previous conference champions and the 2009 preseason poll results. The publication also includes an in depth look and preview of all 12 SCAC volleyball teams and much more.
Southwestern University was predicted to win
the 2009 SCAC championship in a poll of all 12 league head coaches.
The Pirates return five seniors to head the squad including the
2008 SCAC Player-of-the-Year Audra Gentry and 2008 SCAC Backrow
Player-of-the-Year Samantha Lingamfelter.
Trinity University closely followed Southwestern
and checked in at No. 2 in the preaseason poll. The Tigers garnered
122 points and five of 12 first place votes. Tigers head coach
Julie Jenkins and her squad will look for the program’s 12th
straight SCAC title and 18th consecutive appearance in the NCAA
Division III tournament. Trinity returns six starters including
All-SCAC first team junior Taylor Malloy at right side.
Colorado College (108 points, one first place
vote) was the only other team to receive a first place vote and
checked into the poll in third place. The Tigers return junior
middle blocker Emily Perkins, who needed only two seasons to stake
her claim as one of the top all-around players in the
program’s history. Perkins led the team with 521 points (the
sum of kills, service aces and blocked shots) and 79 blocked shots,
and was second in both kills (3.10) and digs (2.70) per game last
fall.
Austin College (2007 NCAA participant) and DePauw
University tallied 91 and 90 points to finish fourth and fifth
respectively. Rhodes College rounds out the top six with 72
points.
Rounding out the 2009 predicted order of finish: Centre
College was tabbed seventh with 54 points and
Millsaps College picked up 47 points to come in
eighth. Hendrix College followed with 41 points
while Oglethorpe University (10th, 29 points) and
Sewanee: University of the South (11th, 12 points)
complete the poll.
Austin College will be led by junior co-captains Jenna Wilson and
Jordan Anderton. Wilson has played in more than 70 matches in her
career and averaged 2.48 kills per game, tops among returning
players. Wilson enters her junior campaign with 514 career kills.
Anderton, who was a 2nd Team All-SCAC selection as well as an
All-South Region honoree, led the conference with an average of
11.31 assists per game in 2008.
DePauw returns five letter winners from last year’s squad.
Junior setter Ali Smith returns after ranking third in the SCAC
last year with 9.47 assists per set, while junior middle hitter
Kristen Cynoweth was third in the league with 1.14 blocks per set
and is the team’s top returning attacker with a .220 hitting
percentage last year.
Rhodes will look to the four seniors to guide the team back to
the promise land that they reached as freshmen back in 2006, when
the team made the regional finals of the NCAA tournament. Senior
setter Laura Jensen will lead the way for the Lynx again. During
the 2008 campaign, Jensen was named third team all conference, her
second consecutive All-SCAC honor.
Centre returns seven seniors including Jacqueline Beck, Mary
Brieschke, Laura Broughton, Megan Gatewood, Alex Headley, Kelly
McCoy and Tyler Travis. They have been contributing since their
first year; and with their strong leadership skills and talent they
will look to help push the Colonels to the next level.
Millsaps looks to improve on its 4-11 conference finish from a
year ago. The Majors return most of their key hitters in Kate Hall
and Maggie Tumminello on offense, with Hailey Miranda setting up
the plays. Hall was a Third Team All-SCAC selection a year ago, The
first Major in four years to garner all-conference honors, and will
have high expectations on her shoulders to keep Millsaps on
point.
Hendrix returns senior Ryan Hughes and key contributors Becca
Clancy, Kim Larson, Leah Groat and Ashley Skinner. Clancy returns
as the Warriors’ leading attacker in 2008 with 349 kills and
960 attack attempts. Larson returns to lead the back row at the
libero position after ranking 10th in the SCAC with 570 digs.
Head coach Kurt Matthews enters his second season at Oglethorpe
after leading the Stormy Petrels to their most successful season
since 2002. Oglethorpe returns junior outside hitter Trupti Patel,
who was third-best in the SCAC with.53 aces per game. Also
returning for Oglethorpe is junior Libero Hilary Miller and junior
outside hitter Sara Blair.
Sewanee enters a new era in 2009 as Katy Caine begins her first
season on the Mountain. The Tigers look to improve in the SCAC
standings and will do so by relying on hitters Maggie Ruch, Kim
Conkell, Libby Boddiford and Sam Maddox. Maddox led the Tiger squad
with 122 kills and 197 digs and senior Mary Beth Epps had 54 kills
in 64 games.
As an NCAA Division III provisional member,
Birmingham-Southern was not considered in the
preseason poll. However, the Panthers return only one true starter
from last season in senior Sarah Harris, but juniors Christine
Denning and Jennifer McKannan, who saw significant playing time in
2008, also return, as do sophomores Haley Johnson and Hope Harris,
who also took the court in several matches last season.
To view the entire 2009 SCAC Volleyball Prospectus, click here.
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