ORONO – A year ago, the University of Maine volleyball attack was pretty predictable, if effective: Bump the ball to Cheryl Elliott. Let her set it to Leah Voss. Then hope the power-side hammer was able to put it away.

Much of the time, she was. But other teams took advantage of the one-dimensional nature of the attack and ganged up on Voss with their blockers.

This year, things have been different. Voss, a senior, was named the America East player of the year on Friday and has again been a dominant performer.

But the rest of coach Sue Medley’s Black Bears have been asked to do more. And they have.

“It’s awesome,” said Elliott, the sophomore setter. “It’s so good to be able to go out and trust your whole team, and to know that when you get a ball you can set anyone and they’ll come through for you.”

The Black Bears will take their 16-11 overall mark (9-5 in league play) into the America East tournament beginning today.

The No. 4 Bears will face No. 1 Towson (28-3, 13-1) at 2:30 p.m. in Towson, Md. No. 2 Northeastern (21-10, 11-3) and No. 3 New Hampshire (18-8, 11-3) face off at 4:30.

The championship match is on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Medley said the Bears top goal has always been to play their best and keep improving. Now she’s hoping her team can pull off the upset.

“The thing about Towson is, they’re not outstanding in any physical area, but the thing that they do extremely well is they’re extremely low-error,” Medley said.

“Our goal would be to try to take them out of what they like to do the best and do what we do well just a little bit better,” she said. “And I think we’re much improved since the last time we faced Towson.”

UMaine dropped two meetings against the Tigers during the regular season: a 3-1 decision on Oct. 14 and a 3-0 defeat on Oct. 28. The Bears split with No. 2 Northeastern and lost twice to UNH.

Among the players who have helped lead the Bears to their first postseason berth since the program was reclaimed three years ago are three hitters ranked among the top 10 in the league in hitting percentage.

Claire Poliquin, a 5-11 middle blocker from North Vancouver, British Columbia, is fifth with a .295 success rate, while 6-2 MB Adrienne Poplawski is sixth at .282.

Voss ranks eighth at .276 and is fifth in the league with 4.14 kills per game. In addition, Elliott ranks second in the league in assists per game (11.72) and Voss is tops in digs (3.31 per contest).

Poplawski said team unity has been a big reason for the Black Bears’ success.

“It’s great coaching, and it’s being a family,” Poplawski said.

Also, Poplawski said, the Bears have become very comfortable playing with each other and have turned into a finely tuned machine.

“We’re jelled with each other now,” she said. “At the beginning we threw six players on the court who haven’t played with each other.”

The result: Players know exactly what to expect in every situation.

“We’ve communicated to the point where we’re actually a team,” Poplawski said. “I know where this person is in back of me. I don’t have to look. It’s trust, communication, heart.”