ABILENE, Texas - With a solid core of returnees McMurry University stood second in Tuesday's American Southwest Conference Preseason poll in the West Division, and senior middle blocker
Terah Brown was voted the West Division Preseason Player of the Year.
Head coach
Cammie Petree returns for her 15th season as head coach of McMurry's volleyball team in her third different stint. She has taken McMurry to the ASC Postseason Tournament the past two seasons, and last year's team reached the semi-finals round and finished with an overall record of 18-11. In addition, Petree added former East Texas Baptist head coach Suzanne Truitt to the staff; Truitt won over 100 college matches in five years as head coach of the Tigers.
Brown, entering her senior season, is already McMurry's career-record holder in total blocks, solo blocks and assisted blocks. She'll also have an opportunity to crack into the top five in McMurry's career list for kills. She was an honorable mention all-region selection by the AVCA last season, an all-division all-conference honoree and first-team all-ASC West Division selection.
Brown leads the pack, but also coming back are all-conference honorees
Sarah Anding (senior libero),
M.J. Vickers (sophomore middle blocker), and
Bailey Marcum (junior middle blocker). Along with Brown, Vickers and Marcum help McMurry have one of the most dominating middle blocker cores in the conference. The trio combined for 700 kills and 242 total blocks last season.
The preseason poll a year ago saw McMurry enter the season as third from the west division. This year the poll, voted on by head coaches and sports information directors from around the ASC, voted McMurry ahead of Texas Lutheran for second place. McMurry also received four first-place votes and received 83 total points. Cross-town rival Hardin-Simmons was voted first in the west division with seven first-place votes and 88 total points. TLU had 78 total votes and three first-place nods. Schreiner was voted fourth, Concordia-Texas ranked fifth, Howard Payne sixth and Sul Ross State rounded out the seven-team west division.
Defending ASC champion UT-Dallas was a unanimous selection for first place in the east division garnering all 12 first-place votes.
Gracen Harris of HSU was selected as the West Division Preseason Defensive Player of the year as she enters her senior season at libero. Niki Calverley of UT-Dallas was the East Division Preseason Player of the Year and Mary Hardin-Baylor's Erin Maenius was voted Preseason Defensive Player of the Year for the east division.
McMurry begins its season Sept. 3 at Trinity University River City Classic with three matches over two days. The team opens Sept. 3 with a match against Whitworth at 1 p.m. followed by a match with the hosts, Trinity, at 3:15 p.m.
2010 ASC PRESEASON VOLLEYBALL POLL
[Voted on by ASC Head Coaches and Sports Information Directors]
EAST DIVISION
|
|
Team (first-place votes)
|
Points
|
2009 Record
|
|
1.
|
Texas-Dallas (12)
|
72
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25-1, 17-0 ASC
|
|
2.
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East Texas Baptist
|
59
|
20-11, 13-4 ASC
|
|
3.
|
Mississippi College
|
40
|
13-14, 6-11 ASC
|
|
4.
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Mary Hardin-Baylor
|
33
|
8-25, 5-12 ASC
|
|
5.
|
Texas-Tyler
|
28
|
10-21, 4-13 ASC
|
|
6.
|
LeTourneau
|
20
|
6-22, 2-15 ASC
|
WEST DIVISION
|
|
Team (first-place votes)
|
Points
|
2009 Record
|
|
1.
|
Hardin-Simmons (7)
|
88
|
22-7, 16-2 ASC
|
|
2.
|
McMurry (4)
|
83
|
18-12, 12-6 ASC
|
|
3.
|
Texas Lutheran (3)
|
78
|
20-11, 14-4 ASC
|
|
4.
|
Schreiner
|
63
|
15-11, 11-7 ASC
|
|
5.
|
Concordia Texas
|
35
|
8-19, 6-12 ASC
|
|
6.
|
Howard Payne
|
33
|
12-17, 8-10 ASC
|
|
7.
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Sul Ross State
|
17
|
1-24, 0-18 ASC
|
2010 ASC PRESEASON VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
[Voted on by ASC Head Coaches and Sports Information Directors]
EAST DIVISION
|
Offensive
|
Niki Calverley, S, Sr., Texas-Dallas
|
|
Defensive
|
Erin Maenius, LIB, Sr.., Mary Hardin-Baylor
|
WEST DIVISION
|
Offensive
|
|
|
Defensive
|
Gracen Harris, DS, Sr., Hardin-Simmons
|
