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LANCASTER, PA -- Franklin & Marshall College seniors Lynn Achenbach (Sr., York, PA/Central York), Maureen Lafferty (Sr., Collegeville, PA/Villa Maria Academy) and Jen Grue (Sr., Canton, PA/Canton) have been named volleyball team captains for the 2003 season. An outside hitter, Lafferty led the team in digs last season with 480 while registering 29 kills, 23 assists, 11 service aces and three blocks to raise her career numbers to 1,235 digs, 136 kills, 51 assists, 104 service aces and seven blocks. Overall, Lafferty's team leading performance in digs last season marked the second time in as many years that she finished among the top four Diplomats in the statistical category as she registered 755 in 2001 to finish fourth on the team. A middle blocker/outside hitter, Achenbach tallied 122 kills, 29 service aces, 29 assists, 45 digs and 22 blocks as a junior. Overall, she now has 173 kills, 39 aces, 31 assists, 88 digs and 53 blocks for her career. A setter/opposite side hitter, Grue tallied 43 kills, 200 assists, 14 service aces and 244 digs in 115 games last season. For her career, she now has 145 kills, 1,614 assists, 41 service aces and 674 digs in 251 games. During their three-year tenure at F&M, Lafferty, Grue and Achenbach have compiled an 84-27 record while helping the Diplomats capture the 2000 Centennial Conference (CC) Championship and earn berths in the 2001 and 2002 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships. Leading the way in 2003 for F&M in a quest for another CC title will be former All-Region setter and first year head coach Mary Kate Boland '01. A 1998-2000 American Volleyball Coaches Association All Mid-Atlantic Region player, Boland averaged 10.19 assists per game to lead the Diplomats to a school record 34-6 mark, a perfect 10-0 conference record, the Centennial Conference Tournament title and a "Sweet 16" finish in the NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament as a senior. Overall, she led F&M to the 1999 and 2000 Centennial Conference Championships and four consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearances while recording a 120-32 record from 1997-2000, the best four-year mark in program history. A 2000 and 1999 first and 1998 second team All-Centennial Conference setter, Boland is ranked among the top ten in program history in digs (fourth, 1433), service aces (third, 241), blocks (seventh, 159) and assists (first, 4062). In addition, she is ranked 11th in career kills with 703, as Boland was one of two players in program history to rank in the Top 10 in five statistical categories at graduation. Co-captain of the Diplomats in 2000, Boland holds school assists records for a game (23, vs. Roberts Wesleyan, 10/27/00), a season (1356 in 1998), a career (4062) a four game match (63, vs. Pomona Pitzer, 9/15/00) and a five game match (75, vs. Grove City, 10/3/98). Further, she holds the Centennial Conference record for career assists. The daughter of Villa Maria Academy head volleyball coach Joe Boland, she led Villa Maria to the 1996 PIAA District I and State Championships at setter to earn Daily Local News Player of the Year honors. In addition, Villa Maria earned three consecutive District I championships (1994-1996) as Boland was named to the PIAA All-State Volleyball Team in 1995 and 1996. During the last two seasons, she served as an assistant coach at Villa Maria working with the setters and drafting scouting reports on opponents. In 2002, Villa Maria won the PIAA District I and State Championships. She takes over a Diplomats' program which finished the 2002 season with a 28-10 record while placing third at the F&M Scramble and the Messiah and Colorado College Tournaments, and first at the F&M and Scranton Invitationals. In Centennial Conference play, the Diplomats concluded the season 9-1 to finish second in the CC regular season standings, advance to the Conference title match and earn a bid to the ECAC playoffs. F&M will open the 2003 season on August 30 at home in the F&M Scramble Tournament. Following the Scramble, the Diplomats will face-off with local rival Elizabethtown College on September 4 in the Mayser Center before heading to the University of Scranton for a two-day tournament on September 12-13 and travelling down Route 30 to open Centennial Conference play versus Bryn Mawr College on September 16. The Diplomats will then return home to Mayser for the F&M Invitational on September 20 before tackling five straight road dates at the Juniata College Tournament (September 26-27), Haverford (September 24), Lebanon Valley (October 2), Johns Hopkins (October 11) and Washington (October 18). The team will conclude the Centennial Conference regular season with home matches versus Dickinson (October 22), Muhlenberg and Ursinus (October 25) and Gettysburg (October 29) and a tri-match at Messiah College (November 1). Admission to all F&M home matches is free and open to the public.
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