2011 MAC Volleyball Preseason Poll

Elizabethtown College has been selected to win the Commonwealth Conference as they are the favorites in the annual coaches' preseason poll by earning 45 points. A staple in the Commonwealth Conference Championship match over the last half decade, the Elizabethtown College women's volleyball team will look to return to the title match for a sixth consecutive season in 2011. Hopes of capturing the second conference championship in program history ride on the shoulders of 10 returnees, six of whom were regulars in a Blue Jays lineup that went 23-10 overall and 6-1 in league play a year ago. Elizabethtown, which won the Commonwealth Conference Championship in 2007, fell to Lebanon Valley in the conference final last November.

Eastern University, three time defending Freedom Conference champions, once again are the unanimous preseason favorites by earning 49 points in the annual coaches preseason poll. Eastern Volleyball starts the year ranked 7th in the AVCA preseason poll. Coach Birtwistle's squad boasts a pair of three-time All-Americans in Maria Horning and Courtney Reinhold. Horning has won Freedom Conference Player of the Year Honors in each of her three seasons in St. Davids. The Eagles, who did not lose any players to graduation, face a gauntlet of challenges with road tests at #2 Emory, #3 Washington University (St. Louis), and #4 Christopher Newport. They will also play at #21 NYU. Eastern has not lost a conference regular season game since 1999.

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• NCAA
• Volleyball
• MiddleAtlanticConference
• PreseasonPoll