University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville Volleyball Picked to Finish in 4th Place in Big South Preseason Poll - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site
01.01.1970 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 16, 2005
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville volleyball team was picked to finish 2005 in the same place it finished 2004. Big South Conference head coaches and sports information directors tabbed the Bulldogs fourth behind Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, and Birmingham-Southern in the annual preseason poll released on Tuesday.
"I'm happy to be picked fourth and that's where I thought we'd be picked," commented UNC Asheville coach Julie Torbett. "We hope to finish higher than that but we certainly respect the teams that are picked in front of us.
"I think you're going to see a very balanced league this season," added Torbett. "The teams picked below us should be much better and that will make every match tough to win."
Senior setter Amanda Wiles was third in the voting for preseason Player of the Year behind Winthrop's Mary Hock who was last season's Player of the Year and Coastal Carolina's Katherine Jensen. Wiles enters the season third on the UNC Asheville career assist list received one first place vote. She is also 156 digs shy of 1,000 which will make her only the second Bulldog setter to amass 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs in her career.
Asheville finished the 2004 season in fourth place in the conference with a 19-17 overall mark and an 8-6 Big South record.
The rest of the Big South preseason poll has Liberty finishing fifth, High Point sixth, Charleston Southern seventh, and Radford eighth.
The Bulldogs open the 2005 season at home on Saturday, Aug. 27, as they host Appalachian State at the Justice Center starting at 4 p.m. The opening match will be broadcast online beginning at 4 p.m.
