CANTON -- Expectations for the St. Lawrence University volleyball team are at a high after a historic 2010 season.

The Saints set school records for most consecutive wins (10) and highest attendance (842), held the first-ever "Dig Pink" match where it raised $6,300 for breast cancer awareness and earned a thrilling 3-2 victory over Clarkson, and earned the program's first-ever conference tournament title.

Individually, the Scarlet and Brown earned multiple postseason awards, including Abby Rose '10 earning the first All-American honors in program history. Though the squad lost three great players to graduation last year, it will turn to its veterans to provide leadership and experience as it strives to retain its conference crown and earn the program's first-ever NCAA tournament berth in 2011.

"A conference championship and an NCAA tournament berth have been on the minds of our seniors since they began their careers," said St. Lawrence Head Coach Shelly Roiger. "With the team motto being ‘limitless', we have our goals in focus for the season. A lot can happen over the course of the season, but we hope to make improvements each step of the way in order to be considered for an NCAA tournament at-large bid."

Though the newly reconstructed Liberty League now has seven teams, there is no automatic qualifier until 2013. With the addition of RIT and Bard to the conference, what used to be a five-team round-robin tournament will now be a four-team single-elimination tournament. The Saints, who finished the 2010 season with a 26 - 10 record, will look to continue to produce tallies in the win category in hopes of being noticed by the NCAA committee.

St. Lawrence returns eight players, including All-Conference honorees Nyasha Miller and Liz Grogan, who both earned spots on the second team. The team also welcomes six newcomers who, according to Coach Roiger, have already made many contributions in preseason.

"Our incoming players are much further along than I expected them to be at this point," said Coach Roiger. "They will undoubtedly be one of the keys to our success as a program this year."

St. Lawrence faces a challenging schedule with 23 road matches and 12 home contests. It will face tough competition throughout the season with the likes of Clarkson, Fredonia, University of Rochester, RIT and nationally-ranked NYU, and will make a trip to Dallas, TX in October to battle a few of the local colleges.

"We are looking forward to our season opener this weekend," said Coach Roiger. "It's a great opportunity to start on our home floor in front of our own fans, and I know the team is anxious to see how things have come together thus far."

The Saints kick off the 2011 season on September 2nd as they host the first annual North Country Volleyball Classic in conjunction with Clarkson University in the Burkman Gymnasium.