CSU East Bay’s women’s volleyball team has lost only one key player from last season’s team, after finishing with a 16-11 record and placed fifth in the final California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) standings.

The Pioneer women began practicing on August 13 and head coach Jim Spagle expects a different team this upcoming season as they look to compete in the CCAA, which he considers a very challenging conference.

“The CCAA is arguably the top NCAA D-2 volleyball conference in the nation,” Spagle explained. “From top to bottom, every team provides a difficult test that will challenge our athletes and coaching staff every night out.”

The CCAA features three teams ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) pre-season top 25 poll led by defending conference champion CSU San Bernadino, who finished last season with a 22-0 record in conference play and was ranked number three in the poll.

UC San Diego came in at 17th and Sonoma State was selected 24th.

The Pioneer women were picked to finish sixth in the conference this season, according to a poll by conference coaches, and while they will miss All Conference senior libero Leslie Ray, Spagle will be welcoming five AVCA All-Americans to this year’s roster which already features eight returning players from last season.

2011 Redshirts Ni Xu and Veronica Sanchez were both second team All-Americans in 2010.  Hannah Bell and Brittany Dominguez were AVCA All-American first team players last season, along with Samantha Siebert, who was an AVCA All-American as well.

“All five of these athletes should make an immediate impact with the 2012 edition of East Bay Volleyball,” Spagle said.

Along with the new recruits, Spagle will look to his returning veterans to help lead the 2012 Pioneers this upcoming fall.

Katie Allen, Kitona Offord and redshirt Veronica Sanchez all underwent knee operations this past spring and early summer and Spagle is hoping all of them are close to or at 100 percent healthy once the regular season begins.

Allen started in all 27 matches last season and was second on the team this past season with 261 kills.

Offord led the team in kills last season with 268 and also started in all 27 matches for The Pioneers.

Nicole Boyle and Siebert will also be looked upon by leaders, as Spagle acknowledged all five of these women as his top players from a leadership standpoint.

While fellow conference coaches have Spagle’s team ranked sixth, he believes his team has what it takes this year to contend for a conference title this season.

“Our athletes have worked hard in our spring training and now believe that they deserve to win,” Spagle explained.  “We have crossed a big hurdle in that regard.”

In order to make some noise in conference play this season Spagle said his team must be able to take out the top teams in conference, which he considers to be CSU San Bernadino, Sonoma State, Chico State, UC San Diego and Cal State LA.

All these teams were ranked above CSUEB in the recent coach’s poll.

If the Pioneer women are able to upset a couple of the teams ranked above them, then it could be the start of a dream season for Spagle and his squad.

“We are stronger, more athletic and have considerably more leadership than past season,” he said. “Our returning players have come a long way from last season.  I am very proud of the work they have all put in to making the upcoming season something very special.”