September 01, 2011

 

DECATUR, Ga.- The Maryville Scots have been picked as the favorite to finish first in the Great South Athletic Conference, the conference announced today. This is the first year the GSAC will have preseason polls as voted on by the coaches from schools around the conference.

Maryville came out on top with five of the nine first place votes beating out last year's conference champion Piedmont by two votes, landing them in second. Maryville returns last year's GSAC volleyball Player of the Year Kristin Findley for her final season as a Scot. Findley led the conference in kills per game with 3.54 with 404 on the season over 114 starts.

Piedmont, the host of this year's GSAC Conference Championship, brings back last season's GSAC Libero of the Year in Paige Eslinger and Freshman of the Year Katheryn Knarr. Eslinger led the conference in digs, averaging 4.95 a game.

Nabbing the final first place vote, Huntingdon finished third after finishing last season with the best conference record going into the GSAC championship.

Rounding out the top five are LaGrange and Agnes Scott who both moved up two spots from their finish last season. Sophomore All-Conference winners Katie Covington and Morgan Bender are back for another season for LaGrange and Agnes Scott, respectively.

Salem finished sixth in the voting as they look to replace last season All-Conference winner Christine Tillman. The Spirits recently announced that Tillman would continue with Salem as a new volleyball assistant coach. 

Closing out the preseason poll are Covenant, Spelman and Wesleyan. Spelman looks to improve on their 1-6 record from last season with the hiring of new coach Ashley Preston.

Regular season competition kicks off on Sept. 1 with Piedmont hitting the road to play Toccoa Fall at 7 p.m. while LaGrange travels to Brenau University for a showdown at 7 p.m. as well.