WINTHROP, Mass. – Seven-time defending Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Volleyball Champion Johnson & Wales heads into the 2023 season as the favorite once again.

The Wildcats were picked atop the preseason poll in a vote conducted by the league's 16 head coaches last week. They earned 245 points in the voting, including 10 of the 16 first place votes.

JWU, which is receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)/TARAFLEX Division III Women's Volleyball Poll, compiled an 11-2 GNAC (20-12 overall) record last year, landing it as the No. 2 seed in the conference championship tournament. The defending tournament champions swept No. 7 seed Norwich in the GNAC Quarterfinals before defeating No. 3 seed Lasell, 3-1, in the semifinal. In the school's eighth straight GNAC Championship match, the Wildcats knocked off No. 4 seed Simmons, 3-1, to claim the conference crown.

In the NCAA Tournament, the GNAC Champions fell to Tufts, 3-0, in the First Round.

Rivier, which went undefeated in conference play last year at 13-0 (26-5 overall), earned the No. 2 spot in this year's poll with 232 points and four first place votes. The Raiders are looking to rebound from an early exit in last year's tournament, which snapped a streak of three-straight GNAC final appearances.

Claiming the No. 3 spot in the 2023 poll was GNAC Tournament runner-up Simmons, which captured 226 points and the last two first place votes. Last year's final appearance was the first for the Sharks since 2017.

Rounding out the top-five in this year's voting were Lasell and Regis, which earned 218 and 188 points, respectively.

They were followed closely by Norwich (154 points), Saint Joseph's (Maine) (139), newcomer New England College (133), and Elms (130). The other new addition to the conference Mitchell landed in the No. 10 spot in its first GNAC Preseason Poll with 109 points.

Rounding out the poll in order were Colby-Sawyer (106), Emmanuel (95), Dean (69), University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) (62), Albertus Magnus (44), and Anna Maria (26).

First serve in the 2023 GNAC Women's Volleyball season is on Friday, Sept. 1 with teams kicking off non-conference action. The first league match takes place on Thursday, Sept. 14 when Albertus Magnus visits Elms with the first full conference date taking place on Saturday, Sept. 16. Teams will complete a 15-game single round robin conference season with the top-10 teams at the end of the regular season earning berths into the 2023 GNAC Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament. The bracket begins with a Play-In Round featuring the bottom four tournament seeds on Monday, Nov. 6. The winners of those games will advance to the GNAC Quarterfinals on Tuesday, Nov. 7 hoping for a chance to move on to the semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 9. The tournament will conclude with the GNAC Championship match on Saturday, Nov. 11 with winner claiming the title of GNAC Champion and earning the league's automatic qualifier into the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.

2023 GNAC Women's Volleyball Preseason Poll

ABOUT THE GREAT NORTHEAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 16 member institutions and over 4000 student-athletes across the New England region. Founded in 1995, the GNAC annually sponsors and administers 22 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement in an effort to enhance the student-athlete experience.

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