(portions of this story from scacsports.com)

SUWANEE, Ga. – The Millsaps Majors Volleyball Team was picked to finish eighth today in the Southern Collegaite Athletic Conference in an annual vote by the league's head coaches. Colorado College, last years SCAC Champions, was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the SCAC championship in 2011 for the second consecutive season.

The Majors lost seven seniors this past season due to graduation, but bring in a strong class of five freshman and one junior college transfer. Millsaps welcomes the return of All-SCAC selections in senior Maggie Tumminello and junior Kasey Laird. The team also welcomes back key players in juniors Raven Scott and Sarah Zito and sophomore Caroline May.

Colorado College garnered seven of 12 possible first-place votes and tallied 136 total points to headline the poll. The Tigers, ranked 13th in the AVCA preseason poll, posted a 14-1 mark in SCAC play while finishing 30-7 overall last year and won the program's first SCAC championship. The Tigers lost a 3-0 decision to Randolph-Macon in the first round of the NCAA Division III championship.

Southwestern University closely followed Colorado College and checked in at No. 2 in the preaseason poll. The Pirates garnered 130 points and three of 12 first place votes. Southwestern, who is 17th in the 2011 AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25 preseason poll, bowed out of the Division III championship with a 3-1 loss to Cal Lutheran in the second round.

Trinity University (122 points, two first place vote), was the only other team to receive first place votes and checked into the poll in third place. The Tigers are among other teams receiving votes (29th) in the 2011 AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25 preseason poll.

Birmingham-Southern College and Austin College tallied 108 and 96 points to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Centre College rounds out the top six with 83 points.

Rounding out the 2010 predicted order of finish: Rhodes College was tabbed seventh with 69 points and Millsaps College was just behind in eighth place, picking up 61 points. The University of Dallas followed with 55 points while Hendrix College (10th, 37 points), Oglethorpe University (11th, 25 points) and Sewanee: University of the South (12th, 13 points) complete the poll.

 

2011 SCAC Predicted Order of Finish
			2010 Record Conf. / Overall
		No. of votes
1	Colorado College Tigers	136 (7)	14-1	30-7
2	Southwestern University Pirates	130 (3)	14-1	32-7
3	Trinity University Tigers	122 (2)	10-4	22-16
4	Birmingham-Southern College Panthers	108	N/A	25-11
5	Austin College Kangaroos	96	9-5	29-10
6	Centre College Colonels	83	6-8	20-18
7	Rhodes College Lynx	69	6-8	18-21
8	Millsaps College Majors	61	6-9	21-18
9	University of Dallas Crusaders	55	N/A	26-11
10	Hendrix College Warriors	37	3-12	15-24
11	Oglethorpe University Stormy Petrels	25	1-14	10-27
12	Sewanee: University of the South Tigers	13	0-14	2-34
*Last year games against Birimingham-Southern, a Division III provisional member, did not count as conference games. Dallas competed as an NCAA Division III independent last year. Note: First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth 12 points, second-place worth 11, on down to 12th-place votes being worth one.