"I was really happy with how hard the team played," head coach Jason Kepner said. "It was good to see a good five-game match and I was happy some of the simple touches that the sand volleyball had helped us with."

The Cougars are coming off a successful 2011 season that saw CofC win the SoCon South Division with a 14-2 conference record and yet another trip to the SoCon Tournament title match. The season marked the 11th straight year that College of Charleston has won the conference tournament or regular season division title.

CofC returns 10 student-athletes from last year's squad including five starters and the SoCon Freshman of the Year in Sloane White. Sophomore Lizzie Theesfeld was a conference All-Freshman team honoree, while redshirt-senior Emily Shelton ranked near the top of the conference in digs.

"For the five years that I've been here, this was one of the best first days I've ever seen," Shelton said. "The talent is there, and it was at a pretty high level considering it was the first time we've all been in the gym together playing as a group."

College of Charleston will welcome four newcomers to the squad, including highly-touted transfer Darcy Dorton from Penn State.

"Any time that they come in and they are working hard and all motivated to be successful, that's a good start," Kepner said. "If you all have to worry about is technical stuff and running the system, then we have plenty of time to get that down in the next two weeks."

The Cougars will open the regular season at home with the Hampton Inn & Suites West Ashley Invitational on Aug. 24-25. N.C. State, Jacksonville and Sacramento State will all be traveling to Charleston to open the season.