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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August
29, 2007
Contact: Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Associate Commissioner
Trinity picked
to win 10th straight SCAC Volleyball title
SUWANEE, Ga.
– In exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference (SCAC), Trinity University has been selected to win
its 10th-consecutive conference title. Coach Julie Jenkins’ Tigers
received nine of a possible 11 first-place votes and 118 points total in
the preseason poll.
With nine straight volleyball championships, Trinity possesses the longest
current streak of any of the 19 sports sponsored by the conference and the
seventh longest streak by any team in the 46-year history of the league.
But maintaining its decade of dominance will be difficult as the SCAC has
become one of the toughest volleyball conferences in the nation. And if
the leading authority on Division III volleyball is any indicator, the
SCAC can legitimately claim it is the toughest of them all.
With four teams ranked in the 2007 CSTV/AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25
preseason poll and another just on the outside of the rankings, no
conference currently possesses more top-to-bottom quality. Three other
Division III conferences had three teams in the Top 25, but no one could
match the SCAC’s four.
Trinity leads the way in those rankings at seventh. Rhodes College is
13th, Austin College follows at 14th and Southwestern University is 19th.
Including Colorado College, all of the five are coming off appearances in
the 2006 NCAA tournament and four of the five won at least one post-season
match.
Trinity finished 34-7 a year ago and advanced to the national
quarterfinals before losing to Wittenberg. SCAC Player-of-the-Year and
First-Team all-American senior right side Sara Buros returns to anchor the
Tigers in the team’s pursuit of another conference title. Trinity’s
appearance in the NCAA tournament last season was its 15th consecutive
trip to the national playoffs.
Rhodes (29-12) was the surprise team last season in the league and is the
coaches’ second pick this year. The Lynx received the remaining two
first-place votes and 108 points total. Reigning SCAC Coach-of-the-Year
Sam Lambert returns a strong nucleus of talent that advanced all the way
to the Central Region final last season, including the league’s
Freshman-of-the-Year, Katherine Delavan. Delavan was also an Honorable
Mention all-American. Laura Reilly, the league’s Backrow
Player-of-the-Year in 2006 and an Honorable Mention All-South region
selection, also returns for Rhodes.
Austin and Southwestern tied in the preseason vote for third place with 92
points.
In its first year in the SCAC, Austin navigated its way to a successful
34-8 campaign, which included a third-place finish in conference and a
berth in the NCAA Tournament. The ‘Roos were knocked out in the South
Region semi-finals by Emory. After graduating two Second Team
all-Americans, Austin will look to senior right side Kaitlin Listol to
provide leadership for a run at a conference title.
Southwestern (30-9), who finished fourth in the SCAC last season, was
knocked from the 2006 NCAA South Region tournament by conference and
in-state rival Trinity. The Pirates return seniors Marie Bruce (setter)
and Katy Lukaszewski (outside hitter) from last season’s 30-win team.
Bruce garnered Honorable Mention All-South region honors in 2006.
Slated fifth in the SCAC preseason poll with 81 points, Colorado College
(23-11) will have its work cut out to attain the program’s 10th
consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers, who also received
votes in the CSTV/AVCA national Top 25, return junior outside hitter Anna
Clithero. Clithero was named Player of the Year by the Association of
Division III Independents in 2006.
Rounding out the coaches’ preseason poll, DePauw University is tabbed
sixth, Centre College is seventh and Millsaps College is eighth.
Oglethorpe University was picked to finish ninth, followed by Hendrix
College at 10th and Sewanee-University of the South at 11th.
Birmingham-Southern, in the
first year of its four-year provisional transition from Division I to
Division III, will not be eligible for the conference championship and all
conference games against the Panthers will not count in the league
standings.
In addition, for the first time since the 1999 season, the SCAC will
conduct a season-ending tournament to determine its champion. From 2000 to
2006, the conference champion was decided by the best overall combined
record in the two divisional and two cross-divisional tournaments.
|
2007 SCAC Predicted Order of Finish |
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No. of Votes |
2006 Record |
|
Conference |
Overall |
| 1. |
Trinity University
Tigers |
118 (9) |
17-1 |
34-7 |
| 2. |
Rhodes College Lynx |
108 (2) |
15-3 |
29-12 |
| T3. |
Austin College Kangaroos |
92 |
14-4 |
34-8 |
| T3. |
Southwestern University
Pirates |
92 |
13-5 |
30-9 |
| 5. |
*Colorado College Tigers |
81 |
n/a |
23-11 |
| 6. |
DePauw University Tigers |
68 |
11-7 |
20-14 |
| 7. |
Centre College Colonels |
48 |
7-11 |
18-24 |
| 8. |
Millsaps College Majors |
46 |
4-14 |
13-23 |
| 9. |
Oglethorpe University
Stormy Petrels |
28 |
3-15 |
9-29 |
| 10. |
Hendrix College Warriors |
26 |
1-17 |
13-25 |
| 11. |
Sewanee-University of
the South Tigers |
19 |
5-13 |
7-26 |
| |
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*Colorado College was a Division III independent last season.
#Birimingham-Southern, a Division III provisional member, was not
considered in the pre-season conference rankings.
Note:
First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth 11 points,
second-place worth 10, on down to 11th-place votes being worth
one. |
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