Juniata men’s volleyball ranked fifth in AVCA Division III preseason poll

AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Top 15 Preseason poll (Jan. 11, 2012)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College men's volleyball checked in at No. 5 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III Men's Top 15 Coaches poll, released Wednesday.

The Eagles received 182 points in the voting, trailing fourth-place NYU by just 14 points.

Defending 2011 Molten Invitational champions Nazareth College received 13 first-place votes and sit atop the poll with 233 points. Springfield College received two first-place votes and tallied 223 points, while Carthage College had 202 points and one first-place vote.

Trailing Juniata in sixth place was UC-Santa Cruz, whom the Eagles will face on Saturday, Jan. 14, in their first Division III match of the season. Rivier College was seventh, followed by Stevens, MIT, and Baruch College to round out the top ten. 

Juniata is coming off an 18-12 campaign in 2011, with the Eagles capturing the EIVA Hay Division championship with an 8-0 record. The Eagles are led by 6-4 sophomore opposite Alex McColgin (Buffalo, N.Y./Hamburg), who averaged 3.08 kills per set while hitting .268 last season, and 6-8 senior middle Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) with 2.08 kills and a .472 hitting percentage to go with his 0.89 blocks per set.

The Eagles open their 2012 season tonight at 10:30 p.m. (ET) against NAIA-foe Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif., and continue the three-match California swing on Friday night with a match at Stanford University. The trip concludes with Saturday's clash at UC-Santa Cruz.

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