I don’t know what part of the country you are willing to consider… Berry College in Rome, Georgia has good, solid academics and great merit scholarships. They are a D3 school and have women’s volleyball. Student population is 2,000 and have enough smart kids to keep good interest in classroom discussions. They seem to have a mix of preppy, artistic, hipster, indie, etc. personalities so there should be some friends for every type of student.
The school has been around for over 100 years, and has the endowment to prove it. They stress service and work, and every student is guaranteed a job on campus if they want one. The Berry name and reputation is solid in the southeast region. They are ranked #129 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (USNWR).
www.berry.edu
Berry’s Animal Science/Pre-Vet program is outstanding, with 90% acceptance rate in 16 vet schools across the country.
Division 1 women’s volleyball is a ‘headcount’ sport, so she will either receive a full scholarship or nothing. Very competitive, very time intensive. It sounds like your daughter doesn’t want that at all so cross all D1 schools off your list (except maybe the Ivies, but then no merit or athletic money and still a lot of time).
Other schools are going to be as academically challenging as you make them. My daughter picked Div 2 because she liked the school the best. She is in engineering, and her order of importance is school, sport, social life. Some (most?) of her teammates do not have this order of priority, but my daughter does and honestly, a little of her power to say “I have to study” is because she’s a top player on the team. She is the youngest on the team, but the bossiest.
As far as being social friends with teammates, it’s about 50/50 for my daughter. She also is in a sorority so has the excuse to attend other functions. She also has friends from classes she studies with and does social events with (concerts, other sports). Right now they are in season so she is spending more time with her team but doesn’t always. This year she lives with teammates, but next year she’s going to live with other athletes she’s met (softball players). I thought it was a mistake to have the team freshmen live together and I was right - too much drama, too much time together, too much gossip.
College is not high school, and the social life is different. It is easier for my daughter to be independent of her team in college than it was in high school, but there is still lots of drama. Your daughter can control that drama by not living with the team, not doing everything with them, but then they are going to be snippy. My daughter doesn’t care. She really doesn’t have time to care. She goes to study tables at the library rather than join in the gossip and drama.
One more suggestion- if the D3 doesn’t work out consider looking at club teams at schools your D loves. They are a notch below Varsity level but above intramural. There is usually a cost to participate as they do travel. They are typically very competitive and often include players who are good enough to play Varsity but choose not to because academics are a higher priority. Best of luck with the D3 visit and please keep us posted.
Thanks takeitallin! Will keep you posted once done with the visit.
My niece played Club level soccer at Furman and loved it. She practiced throughout the week, and traveled a few times for games with other colleges. It was enough activity and connection to the sport, and she made friends with like-minded girls.
twoinandone, kudos to your daughter. She’s one strong independent young lady! D is always in a wrong school since day one… social life to her is not as healthy as she always wanted. She’s very sociable and friends to her means a lot especially like-minded ones. she made some really good friends while she was at a CTY writing camp in Stanford a few years ago but one lives in SF, the other in a country across Pacific Ocean. They are totally like-minded. Other than that, she has been having hard time finding the right group.
I look forward to seeing her going to a school with kids think like her…
Powercropper I almost thought you were suggesting a school in Italy 
I think D only wants to go out of state for school if the school itself is a good fit plus a starting position on the roster if not FY then S. Otherwise she would probably stay in CA and play in a club team. Thanks for your suggestion, I will check the school out!
If your D is open to the north east, I would recommend you contact the NESCAC schools. There are 11 of them, so some of them will have interest in her VB skills. These are very academic schools (e.g. Amherst, Middlebury, Colby,Trinity) that have competitive D3 teams. My D is from CA as well and plays in that league. Her school admitted more students from CA than any other state this year. It is a completely different world for D, academically and socially, in a good sense. You would need to visit them and the cost is high but she has learned so much.
Bruinatty, thanks for your response. D is also talking to most of the schools you mentioned. Some did show interest and they are also similar to the one we are visiting next week, top 10 LAC, great academics, right vb level for D. Will see how it plays out next week 
Ohio Dad,
I feel like I am hijacking a number of threads of late, but I have to disagree about the NESCACs only playing each other and being considered the weakest of the leagues. First of all, all teams have substantial out of league play. Baseball, for example, does not play the full 40 games allowed by NCAA rules, but it is pretty close at +/- 35-37. I would say around 20 of those games are against non-NESCAC opponents. This can be confirmed by a simple review of the NESCAC website, which contains all of the full schedules. Second, I think the NESCACs are the strongest league athletically (as a whole) of any other league in the country. If you compare the SOS of many of the NESCAC teams with other teams I think you will find stronger SOSs in the NESCACs (if only because they play each other). There will be doubters, but NESCAC mens soccer regularly has more teams in the NCAA tournament than any other D3 league, and typically three or four teams are nationally ranked each year. Tufts womens softball last year won the NCAA tournament (and is undefeated so far this year). That is not to take anything away from Tufts mens soccer, which won the NCAA tournament last year. Hamilton has won an NCAA womens lacrosse tournament, as has Trinity. Trinity also has won a couple of D3 world series. Williams has won more directors cups than any other D3 program. Without researching it, I can confidently say that Amherst does not fall into the athletic slouch department. In given areas, you may find stronger teams. For example, Messiah’s mens soccer is consistently higher than most other D3 soccer programs. But, the fact that the league has several teams invited to the tournament each year suggests that overall the league is one of the strongest – if not the strongest in the country.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear above. I was referring to NESCAC football, which to the best of my knowledge plays an eight game schedule solely against conference opponents. And I probably should have said that NESCAC football is insular, and doesn’t really fit in to any of the NCAA divisions.
Update!
Finished the visit, D loved it, called the girls on the team “my friends” without knowing it. Great campus, great students, great facilities, great coach. It’s D’s first choice.
Btw, she got offered a spot on the team, yay!
Congratulations to you and your daughter!
It’s great that she liked the school.
You’ve said on a couple of threads that she wants a team where she’ll be a starter and play all the time. That’s kind of hard for the coaches to promise, especially 1.5 years in advance. My daughter is on a new team and 9 freshmen were recruited, plus there are some walk ons including one transfer who is the star. Of the 9 recruits, six are starters, one other plays a lot, and 2 rarely see game time. There are 6 freshmen coming in next year, so some current players may get bumped, including some of the starters. You never know. A friend of my daughter’s was a superstar and goes to a big D1 school. She’s played in TWO games as a freshman, and certainly not for the entire game. If she had gone to a smaller program, she would have continued to be a superstar and played all the time, but she’s where she wants to be, at a top school athletically and academically.
My daughter chose the program knowing they’d lose a lot because they are new but that she’d get a lot of playing time (and loved the academic fit). The coach didn’t promise playing time to any of them, just a spot on the team. I think the coach was a little surprised that my daughter was good and that some of those who sit weren’t as good as she thought they would be. I’m interested to see if the other 3 return to school/team next year just because the team didn’t work out as they expected.
@twoinanddone thanks for the heads up and I appreciate for you advice! I understand the uncertainty of playing time but accordingly to the coach, she is only recruiting two in her position and there will be only one left from the current players for the year of 2016. The strategy she’s been adopting requires all three on the court so I believe the chance of being on the court is high provided D continues to improve and strive. There’s always no guarantee in sports play, but some coaches give you the confidence that you will play if you are doing the right thing and she is definitely one of them. It’s also a life lesson for D to learn to be better and better each day for a competitive world.
Great news kchendds! Isn’t it nice when it all works out despite all the unknowns? I’m so happy for your daughter, who knew what she wanted and got it! As far as playing time, you can never plan for what may happen and can only go into the situation knowing that you did all the research and that you can adapt to whatever happens. It sounds like you have done everything right. Congratulations!
@takeitallin Thank you! I would love to admit I have done everything right! For now, we just go with what’s the best on the table and I am confident that it will be amazing for D!