Anteaters Ranked No. 2 In Preseason Polls
December 10, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
Irvine, Calif. – The UC Irvine men's volleyball team was picked second in both the AVCA National and MPSF Coaches Preseason Polls.
In the national poll, UCI received 258 points, 10 points behind first place BYU. Loyola-Chicago was third with six first place votes followed by Long Beach State and UCLA to round out the top five.
UC Irvine also finished second in the MPSF poll, totaling 106 points and a pair of first-place votes. BYU held the top spot with 112 points and eight first place nods. UCLA was third with 95 points and one first place vote. Long Beach State was fourth and UC Santa Barbara was fifth, capturing one first place vote.
UCI will battle all 15 teams on the AVCA's preseason list in 2016. After hosting Concordia on Dec. 30, UCI will travel to Provo, UT to face George Mason and Loyola-Chicago in BYU's AVCA Showcase on Jan. 8-9 before opening the MPSF schedule entertaining UCLA on Jan. 15 at the Bren Events Center. Buy Tickets now.
The Anteaters return five starters from last year's MPSF Championship team, including first-team All-American Tamir Hershko on the outside and first-team All-MPSF middle blocker Jason Agopian.
AVCA Coaches Top 15 Preseason Poll
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. BYU (13) 268
2. UC Irvine 258
3. Loyola-Chicago (6) 236
4. Long Beach State 213
5. UCLA 193
6. Ohio State 182
7. Hawaii 168
8. Lewis (1) 158
9. UC Santa Barbara 153
10. Penn State 145
11. Pepperdine 126
12. USC 95
13. Stanford 91
T14. Ball State 35
T14. George Mason 35
Receiving votes: CSUN 19; Pfeiffer 12; IPFW 4
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Preseason Poll
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. BYU (8) 112
2. UC Irvine (2) 106
3. UCLA (1) 95
4. Long Beach State 89
5. UC Santa Barbara (1) 86
6. Hawaii 75
7. Pepperdine 63
8. Stanford 53
9. USC 50
10. CSUN 30
11. Cal Baptist 21
12. UC San Diego 12
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