News
Bryan Volleyball Slated 3rd In Preseason Poll
August 6, 2008
The Lady Lions Volleyball team was polled to finish behind 2007 Conference Tournament Champion King College and 2007 Regular Season Champion Union College in the AAC preseason coaches poll, released today. The Lions finished in a tie for second with King in 2007, defeating conference regular-season champion Union 3 times (the only conference team to defeat them in the regular season) but losing to King twice in the regular season, then losing again to them in the conference championship match.
Bryan College’s 5th year coach Leo Sayles commented, “The preseason poll is not a surprise. With King and Union coming in as defending champions, they deserve to be ranked ahead of us. All three of our programs return the core of our teams, which means there will likely be some highly-contested matches. I will be surprised if any of our teams can sweep our conference schedule this year. You have to respect what King has done the past decade, and (King coach) Chris Toomey did a tremendous job taking over the reigns last season. (Union Coach) Whitney Erb will likely keep her team on track. Although she is a new head coach, she was the assistant last year and was very involved in recruiting and day-to-day operations last season. UVA-Wise is a ‘dark-horse’ this year, after graduating 5 seniors from the team that upset both King and our team in the Regional playoffs to earn a bid to Nationals. Covenant, VIC, and Milligan should all be right in the mix as well. We have our work cut out for us in 2008.”
Bryan lost 3 starters from the 2007 squad which advanced to the Appalachian Conference tournament championship and the Region championship matches. The team received an automatic bid to the NCCAA national tournament, and finished the season ranked #7 on the NCCAA national poll and #2 in NAIA Region XII. Key returners include 2007 NCCAA All-American MH Robin Renfroe, 2007 NAIA All-Region Gabrielle Claxton, and AAC All-Freshman member Alison Young. The Lions open the 2008 season August 29-30 when they host 2007 NAIA #13 Mt. Vernon Nazarene, Colorado College, Lee University, and Shorter College in Bryan’s Kickoff Tourney.
Appalachian Athletic Conference Preseason Poll
1. King 92 (5)
2. Union 84 (3)
3. Bryan 83 (2)
4. UVA-Wise 76
5. Covenant 61