The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) released the results of the league's preseason men's volleyball poll, tabbing the Dominican University Stars to win the NACC's inaugural men's volleyball title.  The Stars received 11 of a possible 14 first-place votes, totaling 94 points to top the poll voted on by the conference's men's volleyball coaches and sports information directors.
 
The MSOE Raiders landed second, claiming 84 points, including the remaining three first-place tallies.  The Raiders were followed by the Benedictine University Eagles (73) and Marian University Sabres (50) to round out the top four.  Lakeland (46) enters the poll fifth while first-year programs, Aurora University (29) and Concordia University Wisconsin (16) claimed the final two spots.
 
Dominican, the 2017 Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) champs, went 26-3 last season, earning the program's first trip to the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship.  The Stars return 13 letterwinners from 2017, including seniors Luke Spicer, Nick Timreck and David DeMarco, all three of whom were regular starters for Dominican last season.  Spicer, a first team AVCA All-American selection, was the Stars' leader in kills (291) and kills per set (3.42) while hitting .328 for his junior season.  Spicer has collected 836 kills for his career, looking to become the first player in program history to eclipse the 1,000-kill plateau.
 
Timreck, a 2017 All-MCVL 2^nd Team selection, returns for his final season after posting 1.04 blocks per set last season, ranking seventh nationally.  The 6'6 middle collected a team-best 84.0 total blocks in 2017, including 13 solo blocks.  Timreck added 102 kills last season, hitting at a .332 clip, for a total of 153.5 points.
 
DeMarco returns for his final season after earning the Stars' starting libero spot last season and collecting 94 digs in 57 sets, helping Dominican hold its opponents to a .162 attack percentage.
 
Despite all the familiar faces on the roster, Dominican will be under the direction of first-year head coach Dan Pawlikowski in 2018.  Pawlikowski comes to Dominican with more than a decade of collegiate coaching experience including his most recent stop at Division I Stony Brook University where he was an assistant women's volleyball coach and later associate head coach from 2013-2016 after breaking into college coaching in 2004 at Loyola University where he spent three seasons as an assistant men's volleyball coach.  In between, Pawlikowski had stops at North Park University, Northern Illinois University and University of Wisconsin.
 
The Stars are set to open the 2018 season on Thursday, January 19, hosting the St. Xavier University Cougars.  Dominican will play its first four matches of the 2018 season in the Igini Sports Forum before hitting the road for a four-game road trip to Ohio.  The Stars then return home to open NACC play on February 9^th, hosting the Benedictine University Eagles on the first weekend of league play.