BOSTON, Mass. – The Wentworth Institute of Technology men's volleyball team has been picked to repeat as the 2018 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) champions, as announced by the league office on Tuesday afternoon. Coming off its best season in program history, the Leopards received 63 points in the preseason poll, including seven of eight first-place votes.

Rivier trailed Wentworth in the poll with one first-place tally and 55 total points, followed by Johnson and Wales with 46 points in the third slot. Lasell rounded out the top four with 40 votes, which finished second to the Leopards in last year's GNAC championship battle.

Ranked 10th in the country to start the season, Wentworth returns GNAC Offensive Player of the Year and AVCA Second-Team All-American Collin Ritter (Feeding Hills, Mass.), who will compete in his final season with the Leopards. Head coach Evin Giglio returns for his seventh season with the Black & Gold, after receiving his second GNAC Coach of the Year honor in 2017. Giglio steered the Leopards to its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where the Leopards fell in the national semifinal to SUNY New Paltz.

The Leopards open the 2018 campaign on Friday, January 19, at the SUNY Poly Wildcat Invitational. Wentworth will face Nazareth and Wells on Friday afternoon, and will close out the tournament on Saturday against No. 4 Vassar and the host Wildcats.

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