The Piedmont volleyball team was picked third in the USA South Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday. Head coach Jamie McCormack will begin her second season at Piedmont and will look to build off of last season's success.
The Lady Lions completed last season with an 18-12 record and finished 9-6 in the USA South Athletic Conference before falling in the first round of the conference tournament to Salem. Returning to lead Piedmont is last year's conference Libero of the Year Haley Hixon and First-Team West Division selection Katelyn Durmire.
In 2017, the conference welcomes new league members Berea College, Brevard College and Pfeiffer University. Brevard and Pfeiffer will not be included in the polls as they are each reclassifying from Division II and are not eligible for championship honors this season. With the addition of these three teams, Berea and Brevard will join the West Division and Salem College will move to the East Division with Pfeiffer.
Covenant took top honors in the West Division poll and received seven first-place votes. Maryville was voted second with one first place vote while Piedmont rounds out the top three. LaGrange was voted fourth while Huntingdon completes the top five.
Piedmont volleyball will begin its season on Sept. 2 in Atlanta against Columbia College at 1:30 pm and then will close the day with a 6:30 p.m. match against Illinois Tech.
