The Binghamton University volleyball team has some big shoes to fill.
Following the loss of a star-studded senior class led by standout outside hitters Michelle McDonough and Anna Lejina, the team has been picked to finish third in the 2011 America East Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
Defending AE champion University at Albany tied with University of Maryland, Baltimore County for three first-place votes apiece in the poll, but the Great Danes beat out UMBC for the top spot, garnering 33 total points to the Retrievers’ 31.
The Bearcats nabbed the final first-place vote to finish third in the poll with a total of 25 points.
Last year, after being selected as the preseason pick to finish atop the AE for the second consecutive season, the Bearcats finished 9-3 in regular conference play. They punched their ticket to the postseason for the seventh-straight time, carrying the second seed into the AE tournament. But the Bearcats watched their promising run at a repeat come to a disappointing close as they fell to UMBC 3-0 in the semifinals.
Perhaps as large a loss came in the form of the six seniors BU lost to graduation at the end of the season. The first-team All-Conference pair of McDonough and Lejina undoubtedly leaves the largest void in terms of both skill and leadership. The duo ranked first and third in the league respectively last year for average kills per set, and McDonough ended the season fifth on the overall kills list for BU.
In the offseason, the squad acquired seven newcomers in the form of six freshmen and a transfer student. Head coach Glenn Kiriyama has emphasized the role the newcomers play in filling in the void left by last year’s seniors.
“We did lose quite a bit and they’re going to be tough to replace,” Kiriyama said during the team’s annual preseason media day in early August. “We know we’ve got some new people that are going to have to contribute right away and we know we have to get them on a higher level pretty quickly so we’re trying to push them hard and develop them as quick as possible so we’re ready.”
Binghamton returns a trio of starters in senior setter Julie Chambers, junior middle blocker Alex Roland and sophomore libero Xiomara Ortiz, who will be expected to continue to help anchor down the rest of the court.
All three bring a mix of experience and accolades to the court in 2011. Chambers led the league last season with 9.82 assists per set, while Roland posted a team-best average of 0.87 blocks per set, good for fifth overall in the conference. Ortiz, who was named to the all-rookie team in 2010, ranked second in the conference in digs per set with 4.17.
During her media day press conference, Roland also talked about the team striving to follow the precedent set by last year’s team.
“I really feel like right now it’s just living up to the name and basically to like our records,” she said. “I mean, we always are at the top of the conference and I feel like that’s really like motivational force behind a lot of people, [they] want to be able to fill those shoes and to keep Binghamton [in] a positive light. I think everyone’s working really hard and they’re definitely trying to live up to the name.”
BU kicked off non-conference play at the Mizzou Tiger Invitational this weekend, an early season tournament hosted by University of Missouri. Up against a challenging set of opponents, the Bearcats dropped all four games of the tournament.
On the first day of the tourney, BU dropped its season opener to Missouri in three straights sets (15-25, 9-25, 17-25) before being swept by North Dakota State University (13-25, 12-25, 19-25) later in the day.
The Bearcats opened the day Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Idaho State University (25-14, 25-21, 25-18) and fell to Tulane University (25-19, 25-23, 25-17) in the final match of the tournament.
Despite the rocky 0-4 start to BU’s season, the program’s first since 2002, the weekend was highlighted by standout performances from some of the team’s rookies, including freshman setter Amanda Dettmann. In Dettmann’s best performance, the rookie led the team against Idaho State with 24 assists, 11 digs and and three service aces in the match.
Freshman outside hitters Kristin Hovie and Annelot Nieuwenhuis provided the team with further offense on the weekend, propelling the team with nine kills apiece against Idaho State. Hovie, who recorded a team-high 11 kills against Tulane, was named to the all-tournament team for her performance.
The Bearcats’ next matchup is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the West Gym against Niagara.