LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – The Rider University volleyball team opens the 2018 season on the road this weekend, taking part in the two-day Crosstown Tournament hosted by Lafayette on August 31 and September 1. The Broncs begin the fall campaign on Friday with a neutral-site clash against Lehigh followed by a pair of matches on Saturday versus in-state foe Rutgers and the host Leopards.

What You Need to Know About the 2018 Broncs
- Rider returns six players from last year's team that appeared in over 110 sets a year ago, highlighted by 2017 First Team All-MAAC honoree Hailey Riede.

- Rider was picked to finish sixth in the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Broncs received 51 points in the poll to finish just five points behind fifth-place Niagara.

- Rider has qualified for the MAAC Tournament in each of the last four seasons thanks to racking up 10 or more conference wins each year since 2014.

- Senior Hailey Riede was the lone Bronc to be named to the Preseason All-MAAC Team. Riede enters her season just eight kills shy of 1,000 in her career. She is the only player in program history to earn First Team All-MAAC honors more than once as she has received the distinction in each of the last two seasons.

- Riede is the team's top returning offensive threat. Riede, the 2015 MAAC Rookie of the Year, set new career-highs in kills (373), kills per set (3.11), points (400.5) and points per set (3.34) as a junior.

- Other returning scoring threats at the net for the Broncs are Savannah Logan, Perry Williams and Evelyn Shanefield. Logan had 239 kills as a junior, while Williams and Shanefield accounted for 198 and 146 kills, respectively.

- The team will look to replace the production of graduated seniors Veronica Koval, Emma Aldaya and Jennifer Borio. Koval is the all-time program record holder in assists, Aldaya is the all-time Rider leader in digs and Borio was a four-year threat at the net producing nearly 1,000 points.

- Sophomore Danielle Blanco and several freshmen will see time in the middle of the offense as the setter. As a freshman, Blanco had 48 assists, 24 service aces and 252 digs.

- Defensively, the team's top two blockers in the middle are back in Williams and Shanefield.  Williams totaled 98 blocks (17 BS, 81 BA), while Shanefield led the team with 106 blocks (19 BS, 87 BA).

- On the backline, junior Rachelle Runyon and sophomore Brynn Sherbert are the returners who racked up the most digs in 2017. As a freshman, Sherbert was third on the squad with 276 digs and Runyon was fourth with 272. Runyon set new career-highs in digs (272), digs per set (2.39) and assists (34) last autumn, while she registered 10 or more digs in four matches. In 2017, Sherbert was named to the Volley in the Valley / Rose Hill Classic All-Tournament Team, had 10 or more digs in a match 12 times and recorded a career-high 18 digs in a five-set win versus Iona.

- Rider has won at least one game at its season-opening tournaments in each of the last three seasons.

- The Broncs are opening the season by renewing some regional rivalries. Rider and Lehigh are playing for the first time since 2012, The Broncs and Rutgers meet for the first time since 2016 and Rider and Lafayette square off for the first time since 2015. https://portal.stretchinternet.com/drexel/

- The Broncs have six newcomers this season as  Kerrigan Casper (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas), Ellen Paddock (Warsaw, NY/Warsaw), Anilee Sher (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill), Caprice Clarke (Toronto, Canada/Blyth Academy (Yorkville)), Delaney St. Pierre (Colorado Springs, CO/Coronado) and Jillian Chan (Watchung, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional) are all joining the squad for the 2018 campaign.