UNC Asheville and Charleston Southern were both picked sixth. The Bulldogs get my vote for one reason and one reason only. Cindi Miller. Miller is Asheville’s leading returning hitter and the only member of the All-Conference first team to return to school. The Bulldogs will be under the direction of first year head coach Frederico Santos who spent a number of years at Asheville as an assistant coach before beginning his head coaching career at the D2 level. Santos brings a laid back Brazilian philosophy to the conference which will be interesting. He has always been well liked by his players and will have some tricks but the main trick will be to get the ball to Miller. Unlike the rest of the league, Asheville needs its middle attack to be more productive. I expect Holly Shelton, now a junior, to be more of a force and Meredith Foster to continue her improvement. Alex Stewart was a nice surprise for the ‘Dogs last season. There is a question mark at setter, but Santos is a setting coach so I think that will get worked out pretty early on. The Bulldogs had arguably the best outside combo in the league last year, they have half that back, I expect them to be half as good. They move from third to sixth with Miller earning all-conference honors once again.
Graduation hit no team harder than Charleston Southern. Head Coach Danyel Bellush is one of my favorite people in the league but last year was their season to shine and it happened to be when the league was its best in years. The Bucs made the semifinal round behind Player of the Year Amanda Hill. Unfortunately, she and four of her teammates are gone leaving CSU with setter Amy Nokes and middle blocker Crissy Skokan as returning starters. Obviously the question is where does the offense come from? There is no way to replace Hill as a hitter or as a leader and let’s not forget about Cori Holeman and Amberle Trinder who helped CSU be near the top of the league in blocking. I fear it is going to take awhile for the Bucs to reload. Coach Bellush has eight sophomores on her roster lead by Kayla Klinger. She will have to grow up fast. CSU always plays well in the BucDome but they are going to struggle on the road with such a young team.
Another team hit hard by graduation is Presbyterian. The Blue Hose graduated six players including 1st team all-conference middle Amanda Kettles. The good news is that PC returns preseason all-conference outside hitter Presley Mabry along with Andrea Barman and Allison Brown. The Blue Hose will also be a young team as they have just one senior and she only played in nine matches last season. However with three returning contributors, PC is actually in a better spot than many teams. Chris Belshe continues to have his team compete but depth is still an issue. PC is a difficult team to call. I am going to put them ahead of CSU in seventh but not by much.
The good news for Radford is that the league is going to be down a little bit this season. So, for them to improve from two wins to five wins gives RU fans a hope that they may be able to move up. The bad news is for the second year in a row, it failed to hit over .160 as a team and Desiree Aramburu and Laura Waddell are no longer on the team. So, Carly Flemming and Megan McWhorter are really going to have to step up their games. Katelyn Meeks is an underrated libero who is a good primary passer but head coach Marci Jenkins will have to break in a new setter and have to find something on the outside. The bottom line for Radford is that it has to find kills. You can’t hit .160 and expect to win. At the end of the year look at the Highlanders attack percentage. If it is close to .200 they complete with PC, CSU, Campbell, and Asheville. If it’s under .170 they finish last.
Gardner-Webb is the only team in the league that returns all six starters from last season. In fact, it returns all 13 players from last season. The only thing GWU doesn’t return is its head coach. Leo Sayles begins his D1 coaching career with one of the more experienced teams in the league. The only problem is those returners went 5-27 and 0-16 in the conference last season. This is going to sound funny, but I don’t think GWU is that bad. Molly Rhyne is a good outside hitter, Laura Wilcox was Freshman of the Year what seems like forever ago, and Evan Moffitt although maybe not the best technical setter, competes hard. I honestly think this team can compete with the teams we are talking about today. Now I am still going to pick them ninth, because last year they quit on their head coach. So I am not sold on their toughness but if Coach Sayles can instill some pride the red and black and get them to play hard throughout the season especially on those tough road trips to Liberty, High Point, and Winthrop then GWU can surprise some people. Like a lot of teams in this league, GWU doesn’t play well on the road. They have to hang in, compete, and they can steal some matches. They can beat CSU, Radford, PC, and maybe Asheville at home. If they get to four wins in the conference this season, it still won’t be pretty but it will be a lot better than 0-16 and they will still bring back 10 players the following year. You have to start somewhere and for GWU start with winning at home and competing on the road.
So that is it. A team by team look at what I think will happen in the league. Like last year, we will review just before the conference tournament in Charleston. To recap here is what the coaches picked compared to how I pick them. There isn’t too much difference.
Coaches/ Me
1. Liberty/ 1. Liberty
2. High Point/ . tie High Point
3. Coastal Carolina/ 3. tie Winthrop
4. Winthrop/ 4. Coastal Carolina
5. Campbell/ 5. Campbell
6. tie Charleston Sou./ 6. UNC Asheville
7. tie UNC Asheville/ 7. Presbyterian
8. Presbyterian/ 8. Charleston Southern
9. Radford/ 9. Gardner-Webb
10. Gardner-Webb/ 10. Radford
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