POUGHKEEPSIE, New York - The Marist volleyball team will open the 2017 regular season and its third under Head Coach Lauren Amundson at the Lehigh Fall Classic Aug. 25-26. The Red Foxes will play the host Mountain Hawks at 8 p.m. Friday and face Radford (10 a.m.) and Coppin State (1 p.m.) in consecutive matches Saturday.
 
Live stats from Stabler Arena will be available for all three tournament contests.
 
Marist's 2017 roster is split down the middle with seven underclassmen and seven upperclassmen: three seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen. Nine different states are represented among the 14 student-athletes.
 
THIRD GEAR
 
The Red Foxes were picked to finish third in the 2017 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Preseason Poll released August 21. They racked up 73 points to finish behind Fairfield (98 points) and Quinnipiac (84 points).
 
Marist tied for the most in the conference with two selections to the Preseason All-MAAC Team. Sophomore Megan Fergus and senior Ashton Korona were one of the outside hitters and middle hitters recognized with the honor respectively.
 
NEW FACES IN NEW PLACES
 
Peter Manguiat was hired as an assistant coach in the offseason. He spent the previous season as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh, where he guided the Panthers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 years and their third season of 20 wins or more. Pittsburgh had the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Setter of the Year and two All-Americans when he was on the coaching staff.  
 
Four incoming freshmen will join the Red Foxes this year: Sarah Austin, Jocelyn Gorman, Courtney Kasperski and Chidera Udeh.
 
TOURNAMENTS TO PREPARE FOR THE TOURNAMENT
 
Marist will play in the first of four regular season tournaments this weekend. It will host the Volley In The Valley for the first time since 2015 when it takes on Binghamton on Sept. 1 in this year's home opener and defending Horizon League Champion Cleveland State the following day. The Art Carmichael Invitational at University of Rhode Island and Big Apple Battle at LIU Brooklyn are also on the non-conference slate.
 
The Red Foxes' 18-match MAAC schedule begins with a 7 p.m. bout Sept. 19 at Siena. There will be 11 Marist contests held in McCann Arena all together. Live video streams of the Red Foxes' home matches will now be free of charge on the Red Fox Network through Sidearm Sports, one of the country's leading technology service providers for live and on-demand content. 
 
The 2017 MAAC Volleyball Championships will take place from Nov. 17-19 at two-time defending champion Fairfield University. Marist has competed in the MAAC Championships for four straight years and has been the no. 2 seed in the tournament for the last two seasons. 
 
MILESTONE TRACKER
 
With 200 career total blocks, Korona needs 13 more to crack the top 10 in program history. She had the seventh most total blocks in a single season in 2015 (100) and the eighth most last year (99). Senior Kelsey Ediger moved into ninth place on Marist's all-time total attacks list in 2016. Currently at 2,311, she needs 41 more to tie Heather Vir for eighth place. Junior Taylor van der Biezen enters 2017 with the 10th most assists of any Red Fox (623).