LOCAL ROUNDUP: HPU volleyball dominates preseason awards
Aug. 11—CHARLOTTE — For the seventh consecutive season, High Point University has been chosen the favorite in the conference's annual preseason volleyball poll by the league's head coaches, the conference office announced Wednesday.
The Panthers were a unanimous selection, receiving all nine first-place votes. Meanwhile, the coaches voted High Point junior outside hitter Dylan Maberry as Preseason Player of the Year, Campbell libero Claranne Fechter as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and High Point's Maria Miggins as the Preseason Setter of the Year as part of the Preseason All-Conference team selections.
Panther outside hitter Sydney Palazzolo and middle blocker Gabrielle Idlebird were also named Preseason All-Conference.
High Point, under the direction of fifth-year head coach Ryan Meek, went 15-1 in Big South matches last year for its second consecutive regular-season title and fourth in five seasons. HPU was 24-7 overall and returns six starters and 12 letterwinners from the 2021 squad.
Defending tournament champion Campbell was second in the polling with 72 points. Winthrop earned 61 points to finish third in the preseason poll, while USC Upstate was fourth in the voting with 52 points. Presbyterian College landed in the fifth position with 43 points, ahead of Charleston Southern (32 points for sixth). Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville tied for the seventh spot with 23 points each, and Radford was picked ninth with 18 points to round out the poll.
Maberry was last season's Big South Player of the Year honoree. She also earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors as well as All-Southeast Region accolades in 2021 after playing in all 107 sets for HPU, leading the way with 367 kills, 3.43 kps, 395.5 points, and 3.70 pps with a .274 hitting efficiency. She also finished the season with 87 digs and 43 total blocks.
Maberry collected 51 points for the Preseason Player of the Year honor, ahead of Charleston Southern's all-conference selection Peyton Thompson (35 points) and Palazzolo (33 points).
Miggins was Big South Co-Setter of the Year last season with teammate Mackenzi Thornburg, which was the first year of the award. Miggins played all 31 matches and 107 sets, and finished the year with 552 assists (5.16 per set) along with 80 kills, 23 aces (third on the team) and 192 digs while contributing 115.5 points in High Point's 6-2 offense. In Big South matches, she was responsible for 267 assists, nine aces and 108 digs.
Fechter was an Honorable Mention All-Conference honoree in 2021. She played all 31 matches and 115 sets, posted double-digit digs 24 times, and 20+ digs 10 times. Fechter tallied a league-high 527 total digs, which was sixth-most in program history, while her 4.58 digs per set average ranked third in the conference.
The 2022 Big South volleyball season begins Friday, Aug. 26, while Conference play begins Thursday, Sept. 22. The top four teams in the final Big South standings will qualify for the 2022 Big South Women's Volleyball Championship, which is scheduled for Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 19-20 and will be hosted by High Point.
