VOLLEYBALL
The Hope College volleyball team opens the 2021 fall season ranked seventh in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Preseason Poll.
The Flying Dutch, led by head coach Becky Schmidt, rose two spots from the final AVCA poll of the 2021 spring season.
Hope’s 50th season begins on Friday-Saturday, September 3-4 at the University of Chicago’s Gargoyle Classic.
The Flying Dutch are coming off a 9-1 spring season in 2021 that included a 6-1 mark in MIAA regular-season play. Hope won three matches to claim its fourth MIAA Tournament title.
Three-time All-MIAA First Team honoree McKenna Otto and two-time All-MIAA First Team selection Ana Grunewald lead Hope’s group of returners.
CROSS COUNTRY
Both the Hope College women’s and men’s cross country teams are regionally ranked heading into the 2021 season.
The Flying Dutch topped the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Women’s NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional poll, while the Flying Dutchmen are ninth in the men’s poll.
The USTFCCCA rankings use the NCAA’s new 10-region model that goes into effect on September 1. The new regions that will be used are the East, Great Lakes, Metro, Mid-Atlantic, Mideast, Midwest, Niagara, North, South, and West.
It will be the first meet in 648 days for the Flying Dutch and 655 days for the Flying Dutchmen. The 2020 cross country season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
