BGSU sophomore Lauryn Hovey, who was named the preseason All-Mid-American Conference Team, serves the ball during a Bowling Green women’s volleyball open practice for media on August 9 at the Stroh Center. (Scott W. Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
CLEVELAND – Bowling Green volleyball was selected to win the Mid-American Conference East Division and received the most votes to win the MAC Tournament in a preseason poll announced Thursday.
BGSU players Jessica Andrews and Lauryn Hovey were both selected to the East Division Preseason All-MAC Team as well.
Hovey is coming off a season where she was named All-MAC First Team, MAC Freshman of the Year and MAC Tournament MVP. As for Andrews, she was named All-MAC Second Team a season ago. Both earned All-MAC Freshman Team honors as well.
As a team, the Falcons received 11 of the 12 first place votes in the MAC East with Ohio receiving the other first place vote. BGSU finished with 61 points in the poll, followed by Ohio (50), Buffalo (42), Kent State (28), Miami (OH) (18) and Akron (17).
As for the MAC Tournament, BGSU collected six of the 12 votes to be crowned tournament champion with Ball State having five and Western Michigan one.
The Falcons will begin the regular season this weekend with three matches at the NKU Tournament, taking on ETSU, Ohio State and Northern Kentucky.
The Falcons will then return home to the Stroh Center for the Hampton Inn Invitational, including the home opener against 2022 NCAA Tournament participant Loyola Chicago (Aug. 31) as well as matches against Texas A&M (Sept. 1) and another 2022 NCAA Tournament participant in Wright State (Sept. 2).
