The Emory volleyball team will open the 2013 season at the Courtyard Marriott National Invitational in Springfield, Ohio, hoping to get off to a fast start in its bid to match an impressive 2012 campaign.
The Eagles posted a 33-6 record last season, continuing a tradition of strong play under Head Coach Jenny McDowell, who has compiled a 545-134 career record in 17 seasons at Emory, has never missed an NCAA Tournament and has compiled six straight seasons of 30 or more wins.
Emory raced off to a 10-1 start in 2012 en route to a 29-5 regular season record and an 8-1 mark in University Athletic Association (UAA) play. They went on to claim the UAA title and, after winning two games in the NCAA Tournament, finished sixth in the season's final rankings.
Expectations are high for this year's edition as well. Emory opens the season ranked eighth in the AVCA Division III Coaches Preseason Poll and returns eight players who earned letters from last year's squad.
The weekend competition looks just as strong. The Eagles open the season on Friday with a match against the defending Division III national champions, the University of St. Thomas Tommies (Minn.), before taking on Wittenberg University (Ohio) and Johns Hopkins University (Md.) on Saturday. Wittenberg posted a 27-5 record in 2012, while Hopkins set a school record with 29 wins.
The clash with the top-ranked Tommies, who received 47 of a possible 48 first-place votes in the preseason poll, will help the Eagles gauge how close they are to national title contention. Emory actually handed St. Thomas their only defeat of the 2012 season – a tight 3-2 decision in which the final game was decided by a mere two points. The rematch figures to be similarly thrilling.
The host Wittenberg Tigers are no slouches either, boasting the number three preseason slot after finishing sixth in 2012. Emory also played the Tigers last year but fell 3-1 in a late-season contest at the Emory Invitational.
The Eagles return all but four players from last season's team, but two of those players – graduated seniors Breanah Borque and Alex Duhl – led the team in kills, with 511 and 300, respectively.
The team will look to three newly-elected captains and a talented freshman class to fill the seniors' shoes. The captains are senior Sarah Taub and juniors Cat McGrath and Kate Bowman.
Also returning for the Eagles are sophomore setter Sarah Miles, whose 10.74 assist-per-set average ranked tenth in the nation among Division III players, and sophomore libero Taylor Erwin, who earned Honorable Mention All-UAA honors. The eight incoming freshmen earned high praise from Prepvolleyball.com, one of just two Division III recruiting classes that made the website's 99-team list.
We'll have a better idea of how the new players blend with the old after this weekend. The action begins against St. Thomas at 5 p.m. on Friday, followed by Wittenberg at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Johns Hopkins at 12:30 p.m.
–By Ryan Smith
