BRADFORD, Pa. – The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's volleyball team has been selected to repeat as AMCC champions, conference officials announced Tuesday.
"We're honored and proud to be voted the AMCC preseason No. 1 team, but this is a new year with a pretty-much new team that will have to go out and prove itself," 2016 AMCC Coach of the Year Tom Roof said. "What's encouraging, though, is that this group is ready to take to the court and do just that, showing that it's worthy of its ranking."
Pitt-Bradford will look to continue its success from 2016, a season in which it went 25-6 and a perfect 9-0 in AMCC play. The Panthers swept the AMCC Tournament, 3-0, in both the semifinals and championship matches and continued on to the NCAA Tournament First Round against the No. 2 seeded Calvin.
The Panthers will field a young team this season with seven returners and 15 newcomers. Leading all returners are the Panthers' two seniors, Erin Fagan and Emily Reitz. Fagan, a native of Waverly, N.Y., finished third on the team with 160 kills in 2016, while adding 24 blocks, 90 digs and 21 aces. Reitz, from Punxsutawney, Pa., tied for second on the team with 275 digs and finished with the second-best digs per set mark a 3.13.
Pitt-Bradford will begin the 2017 season at the Greyhound Premiere Invitational hosted by Moravian. The four-game showcase will be made up of a pair of doubleheaders on Sep. 1 and 2, the first match of the season against York (Pa.) at 4 p.m.
The first action at the KOA Arena will be Wednesday, Sept. 6 as the Panthers play host to Elmira at 7 p.m.
