HARRISONBURG, Va., April 19, 2012 – The James Madison volleyball team concludes its spring schedule this weekend by hosting George Washington in a scrimmage at Godwin Hall/Sinclair Gymnasium on Saturday.
Wash drills and some scrimmage will take place at 11:30 a.m. with lunch set for 12:30 p.m. Following lunch the Dukes and Colonials will play a 1:30 p.m. match in the final action of the spring.
JMU is set to return five starters and its libero from a team that went 20-11 overall and advanced to the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Championships. It was the second consecutive season the JMU had reached the CAA semifinals and was the first team since 1999-2000 to win 20-plus games in consecutive season. In 2011 the team won its first conference tournament game (3-0 over Georgia State) since the 2007 season.
Returning starters for Madison include First Team All-CAA selection and VaSID State Player of the Year Natalie Abel (Washington, Pa./Trinity) as well as Third Team All-CAA selection in rising senior Danielle Erb (Tampa, Fla./Plant). All-Rookie team selection Kristi Richardson (Glen Allen, Va./Hermitage) returns to team up with rising senior Megan Wiechmann (Sunland, Calif./Village Christian) to hold down the setter position. Also back for JMU is both starting middle blockers in rising junior Kelly Maguire (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) and rising sophomore Lizzy Briones (Siloam Springs, Ark./Siloam Springs) as well as the libero in junior Katie Daorai (Tampa, Fla./Plant)
The Dukes lost outside hitter Holly Wall (Kaukauna, Wisc./Kaukauna) from the starting lineup as well as key contributors in middle blocker Kelly Turner (Ontario, N.Y./Wayne Central) and defensive specialist Morgan Maddox (Leesburg, Va./Loudoun Valley).
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