HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College volleyball team will look to win 20 matches for the third consecutive season and make the Centennial Conference tournament in 2014.
Haverford returns every player from a 2013 roster that went 21-7 overall and 6-4 in the Centennial Conference. After starting 2-2, the Fords rattled off a six-match winning streak, including a perfect 4-0 weekend in the Susquehanna Tournament. The team also went 4-0 in the UMass-Boston Invitational and ended the year winning 10 of its last 11 matches. One of those victories came against Johns Hopkins, the Centennial Conference champion.
Juniors Keri Godbe and Meg O'Day were named to the All-Centennial Conference first team after finishing first and second in the conference in kills. Godbe finished with 437 kills and also ranked fifth in the conference with 403 digs. O'Day had 365 kills and set a program-record for a single match with a hitting percentage of .727 (16 kills, 0 errors, 22 attack opportunities) against Ursinus College.
Godbe (403), junior Nina Mutty (363) and senior Sarah Brody (346) ranked in the conference's top ten in digs last season. Mutty led the team with 40 services aces and contributed 227 kills last year while Brody was one of six players on the squad to have at least 20 services aces.
Junior and sophomore setters Olivia Walsh and Abby Keller will help orchestrate the offensive attack for the Fords. Walsh ranked seventh in the Centennial Conference with 578 assists while Abby Keller finished just outside the top ten with 488.
Head coach Michele Benoit is happy with the depth that the roster provides, "In addition to our upper classmen, we're excited to have sophomores Valentine Courouble and Kaylynn Mayo back on the court in addition to newcomers Zoe Wong and Meagan MacPhee," said the fourth-year head coach.
The Fords begin the 2014 campaign by hosting the annual Haverford Invitational (Aug. 30-31). Its non-conference portion of the schedule includes three NCAA tournament teams, Cabrini, Eastern and Salisbury University. The team ends the season with four of its last seven matches on the road, including a trip to Johns Hopkins on Oct. 18.