Juniata men’s volleyball picked second in CVC preseason poll
Juniata College men’s volleyball will begin its inaugural season of play in the Continental Volleyball Conference among the hunters, and not the preseason favorite to win the first league championship – at least according to preseason voting among the conference’s head coaches.
HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College men's volleyball will begin its inaugural season of play in the Continental Volleyball Conference among the hunters, and not the preseason favorite to win the first league championship – at least according to preseason voting among the conference's head coaches.
Juniata was picked to finish second in the CVC according to the preseason poll. The Eagles received 92 points in the voting and three of a possible 10 first-place votes.
Carthage College, coming off a third-place finish at the 2011 Molten Invitational, was atop the poll with 97 points and seven first-place votes.
Trailing Juniata, and rounding out a consensus top three in the league, was UC-Santa Cruz with 81 points.
The voting was much closer among the middle third of the league, with 11 points separating the next four teams. Thiel College was fourth with 58 points, just one point ahead of Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) with 57. Stevenson University with sixth with 49 points, with Philadelphia Biblical University checking in at seventh with 47 points.
Eastern Mennonite University (31 pts.), Fontbonne University (26 pts.), and Mount St. Joseph University (12 pts.) round out the poll.
The CVC begins play in 2012 with a two division format: Juniata, Eastern Mennonite, Philadelphia Biblical, Stevenson, and Thiel in the East Division, with UCSC, Carthage, Fontbonne, MSOE, and Mount St. Joseph in the West.
Each institution will play in a double round-robin conference schedule within its own division, with the top three teams in each division advancing to the CVC Tournament on April 13-14 in Greenville, Pa.
Juniata opens its 2012 slate on Wednesday, Jan. 11, when the Eagles face Hope International University in the first of three matches during a season-opening trip to California. Juniata will also face Stanford University and UC-Santa Cruz during the west coast swing.
Continental Volleyball Conference
2012 Preseason poll
1. Carthage – 97 (7)
2. Juniata – 92 (3)
3. UC-Santa Cruz – 81
4. Thiel – 58
5. MSOE – 57
6. Stevenson – 49
7. Philadelphia Biblical – 47
8. Eastern Mennonite – 31
9. Fontbonne – 26
10. Mount St. Joseph - 12
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