Moon Township, Pa. – According to a poll of Horizon League head coaches, the Robert Morris University volleyball team has been picked to finish ninth in its inaugural season in the league, as announced by the conference on Thursday afternoon.
RMU at 43 points slots ahead of IUPUI (22) and Youngstown State (17) in the 11-team rankings. With five first-place votes, reigning regular-season champion Wright State (112) was selected as the preseason favorite, finishing one point ahead of defending Horizon League Tournament winner Northern Kentucky (111, 3 first-place votes). Following WSU and NKU were Milwaukee (94), Green Bay (90, 2 first-place votes), Oakland (66), UIC (62, 1 first-place vote), Purdue Fort Wayne (57), and Cleveland State (52).
RELEASE: Wright State Tops Spring 2021 #HLVB Preseason Poll
The Colonials, led by 11th-year head coach Dale Starr, return a veteran-laden team with 12 of 13 student-athletes coming back from last season's 25-win campaign. RMU's 25 victories were the third most in program history, and a program-record 15 Northeast Conference (NEC) wins captured the team's first regular-season title in 11 years. Starr was tabbed as 2019 NEC Coach of the Year following the regular season, while three returnees (Maria Alfano, Whitney Brown, Emma Granger) received All-NEC recognition.
Granger was unanimously named NEC Player of the Year in 2019 and became the first player in program history to earn All-Region and All-American recognition. The senior middle blocker ranked sixth nationally in blocks (1.50), ninth in aces (0.56), 23rd in points (5.03), and 33rd in hitting percentage (.381), and finished the campaign with a conference-record tying seven NEC Player of the Week designations. She broke the program record for career aces (174), single-season total blocks (160), and single-match kills (26) and points (33.0) as a junior, and begins this shortened campaign 72 block assists and 90 total blocks away from those respective records.
Brown, an All-NEC Second Team pick in 2019, became the first junior female student-athlete in school history to earn Academic All-America plaudits when she was placed on the Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The setter led the NEC in assists (10.06) and garnered a pair of Player of the Week nods from the league. She was also named the NEC Fall Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and begins her senior season slotting eighth all-time in assists (1,879).
Alfano was picked alongside Granger on the All-NEC First Team in 2019 as a middle blocker. The senior ranked second in the NEC in blocks (1.15), third in hitting percentage (.365), and seventh in kills (2.76), and collected Defensive Player of the Week recognition from the league following the opening weekend. She slots ninth all-time in block assists (231) and is four total blocks shy of breaking into the top 10 in that department.
RELATED: RMU Volleyball Sets 2021 Spring Slate
This year's RMU side features seven seniors (Maria Alfano, Whitney Brown, Skylar Clements, Emma Granger, Alyson Londot, Mirna Sarjanovic, Erika Wilt), four juniors (Megan Cannon, Emily Devlin, Alyssa Hudak, Nikolette Zanolli), one sophomore (Allena Carmody), and three freshmen (Emma Brown, Annie Monaco, Abby Ryan). The Colonials begin the spring slate on Monday, Jan. 25 when they host Oakland at 6:00 p.m. to begin a two-match Horizon League set.
| 2021 Spring #HLVB Preseason Poll Results |
| 1. |
Wright State (5 first-place votes) |
112 |
| 2. |
Northern Kentucky (3) |
111 |
| 3. |
Milwaukee |
94 |
| 4. |
Green Bay (2) |
90 |
| 5. |
Oakland |
66 |
| 6. |
UIC (1) |
62 |
| 7. |
Purdue Fort Wayne |
57 |
| 8. |
Cleveland State |
52 |
| 9. |
Robert Morris |
43 |
| 10. |
IUPUI |
22 |
| 11. |
Youngstown State |
17 |
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