College | Washington volleyball ranks high in preseason polls

Coaches predict Huskies will finish 3rd in Pac-12, #10 in first national AVCA poll

Third team All-American Lianna Sybeldon will be a Washington senior in 2015
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Volleyball coaches like Washington’s chances in 2015.

In the annual preseason Pac-12 coaches’ poll, Washington finished third, behind Stanford and Arizona State. Stanford got 11 first-place votes, Washington got the other top nod. Because coaches cannot vote for their own teams in this poll, we know Stanford’s John Dunning picked UW for the top spot, and that Washington’s Keegan Cook joined every other coach in choosing Stanford. Stanford will be without All-American middle blocker Inky Ajanaku, out for the season with a knee injury sustained while playing with the US National Team this summer in Peru. (see: Stanford volleyball All-American Inky Ajanaku injured.)

In the first weekly AVCA national coaches’ Top 25 poll, Washington is ranked #10. Penn State is #1 and Stanford #2. Other Pac-12 teams include #13 Oregon, #16 Arizona State, #17 Arizona, #20 UCLA, #22 USC, #23 Utah and #24 Colorado. Oregon State is not in the top 25, but received enough votes to rank #29. Only two Pac-12 schools—California and Washington State—did not receive votes.

Over the past two seasons, the Huskies have won a combined 63 of their past 69 matches, losing just twice each season to Pac-12 foes (once at Stanford, once at Utah, twice at Colorado). The other two losses were to eventual national champion Penn State in the 2013 NCAA Final Four, and to Nebraska in the 2014 NCAA Round of 16.

AVCA Week 1 Poll			Pac-12 Preseason Poll
1	Penn State (54)		1	Stanford (11)
2	Stanford (6)		2	Arizona St
3	Texas (1)		3	Washington (1)
4	Florida		4	Oregon
T-5	Nebraska		5	USC
T-5	Wisconsin (1)		6	Colorado
7	North Carolina		7	Arizona
8	Illinois		8	UCLA
9	Florida St		9	Oregon St
10	Washington		10	Utah
11	BYU		11	California
12	Colorado St		12	Washington St
13	Oregon
14	Ohio State
15	Kentucky
16	Arizona St
17	Arizona
18	Hawai'i
19	Michigan St
20	UCLA
21	Iowa St
22	USC
23	Utah
24	Colorado
25	Duke