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RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky's volleyball season begins Friday at the 2015 Chattanooga Classic presented by Hampton Inn & Suites.  The Colonels will face Troy at 3 p.m. on Friday.
 
The event concludes on Saturday with matches against Valparaiso at 10 a.m. and host Chattanooga at 7 p.m.
 
EKU Head Coach Lori Duncan is set to begin her 18th season leading the Colonels.  She will welcome back four starters from last season's team.  The Colonels are coming off their first 20-win season and best Ohio Valley Conference finish since 2005. 
 
With the help of All-OVC selections Alexis Plagens and Dena Ott, Eastern finished last season 21-14 overall and third in the league with an 11-5 mark.  It was the program's best season since going 23-7 and finishing first in the conference with a 14-2 record in 2005.  However, Plagens and Ott, the 2014 OVC Defensive Player of the Year, were lost to graduation.
 
Duncan will build her 2015 squad around senior Rachel Vick.  She finished last season second on the team with 440.5 points (3.29 per set), second on the team with 367 kills (2.74 per set) and second on the team with 92 blocks.  The 6-foot-1 middle blocker posted a career-high 20 kills at Jacksonville State (Oct. 25) and finished the season with 10 or more kills in 23 matches.  The Bay Village, Ohio native finished fourth in the OVC in hitting percentage at .307.
 
Vick earned a spot on the Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Team earlier this month. 
 
Other returning starters include senior Ally Peters and a pair of talented sophomores in Ciera Koons and Celina Sanks.  Koons started all 35 matches and led the team with 100 blocks last season.  Sanks was third on the team with 249 kills.
 
Junior Johanna Boyer (6-1, OH) and sophomores Tori Anderson (6-1, RS), Danielle Hicks (5-10, OH), Mallory Maxwell (5-5, DS) and Lauren Osuch (6-2, MB) also return in 2015.
 
Five freshmen – Cassie Knutson, Jessica Ginter, Hannah Miller, Chloe Rojas and Kymbria Williams – have joined the program.  Knutson received the All-American Award and a silver medal at Junior Olympics.  Miller led her team to a No. 4 ranking in California.
 
Eastern was picked to place fourth this season in the OVC, according to a poll of the league's head coaches and media relations contacts.
 
The Colonels' first home match is scheduled for Sept. 8 against Northern Kentucky at McBrayer Arena.