Volleyball Picked Fifth in Preseason Poll

GREENWOOD, IND. – The Defiance College volleyball team was picked to finish fifth in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.  [2016 Preseason Coaches Poll]

DC finished with 60 points to rank fifth of 10 teams.  Hanover (Ind.) College was tabbed as the favorite with 98 points and nine out of 10 first-place votes.  Defending HCAC Tournament Champion, Bluffton University, was second with 88 points and received one first-place vote.  Transylvania (Ky.) University rounded out the top three with 76 points.

The Yellow Jackets will return all but one player from last year's squad, but be without graduated senior Rebecca Kain.  Kain earned her second straight honorable mention All-HCAC honors last fall.  She ended her career with a combined eight school records (single season and career) in both the all-time and 25-point scoring eras, including career marks in digs (1,927) and digs per set (4.45).  She owns single-season records for digs, digs per set, and serve percentage (.949). 

This season, DC had two players selected to the Preseason Players to Watch list in senior Ari Mahaffey (Porter, Ind./Chesterton) and junior Meredith Shank (Maumee/Springfield).  

Mahaffey was the team's top setter in 2015 with a team-best 918 set assists and averaged 8.05 assists per game.  She also led the team with 37 service aces on the season.  Defensively, Mahaffey had 297 digs, averaging 2.61 digs per set and posted a team-high in blocks with a total of 36 on the season (21 solo and nine assists). 

Shank earned All-HCAC honors for the second time in her career last season after leading the team in kills with 296 (2.93 kills per set).  She had 15 matches with 10 or more kills, including a career-high 20 kills against Otterbein University.  Shank also had 10 assists during the year to go along with 18 service aces.  Defensively, she was one of seven players to record a minimum of 100 digs (107) and averaged 1.06 digs per set.  She was fourth on the team in blocks with 25 (eight solo and 17 assists).  

DC will begin its season at the two-day Ohio Northern University Tournament on Sept. 2-3.  The Yellow Jackets will play against Ohio Wesleyan University in the season-opener with the match beginning at 4 p.m. in Ada, Ohio.