Griz picked ninth in preseason volleyball poll
8/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Four teams, including newcomer Idaho, received first-place votes in the Big Sky Conference volleyball preseason coaches' poll that was released this week. Montana, which finished fifth last year but lost three starters and its libero, was picked ninth.
Idaho State and Northern Arizona, teams that finished third and fourth last year, tied atop the poll, with each receiving four first-place votes. The Bengals won the Big Sky Conference tournament championship last November as the No. 3 seed. Both teams return five of six starters.
Idaho, the dominant volleyball program in the league when the school left the Big Sky in 1996, was picked third and received two first-place votes. The Vandals, who went 50-6 in Big Sky matches their final four seasons in the Big Sky (1992-95), tied for third in the Western Athletic Conference last season.
North Dakota, which tied for the regular-season championship at 17-3 with Portland State last fall, picked up the other two first-place votes and was pegged for fourth. UND will be playing under first-year coach Mark Pryor, most recently the associate head coach at Baylor.
In a sign of the league's volleyball strength and depth, Northern Colorado and Portland State, programs which have won either a regular-season or tournament championship every year since 2007, were picked fifth and sixth in the poll.
If the preseason poll is reflected in November's final standings, the Vikings will be in new surroundings. PSU, which lost 2013 Big Sky MVP Garyn Schlatter and three other players who earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors last season, hasn't finished lower than second in the standings since 2004.
There was a sizeable drop-off in the results between the power six and the teams making up the bottom half of the poll. Eastern Washington was picked seventh, Sacramento State eighth, Montana ninth, Montana State 10th, Weber State 11th and Southern Utah 12th.
MSU, WSU and SUU finished at the bottom of the Big Sky standings in 2013.
All 12 teams will be battling to make the league's postseason tournament, which has been expanded to eight for 2014 and will be played Nov. 20-22.
Montana went 16-15 last season, a 10-win improvement from 2012. It marked just the second time since 2000 that the Grizzlies have posted a record better than .500.
Montana lost Brooke Bray, Kortney James, Megan Murphey and Kayla Reno, a first-team All-Big Sky outside hitter as a senior, to graduation.
The Grizzlies open the 2014 season, which kicks off with the Montana Invitational in two weeks, with 12 players who are either freshmen or sophomores in eligibility making up four-fifths of ninth-year coach Jerry Wagner's 15-member squad.
2014 Big Sky Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll
T1. Idaho State (4) ... 108
T1. Northern Arizona (4) ... 108
3. Idaho (2) ... 95
4. North Dakota (2) ... 92
5. Northern Colorado ... 86
6. Portland State ... 84
7. Eastern Washington ... 60
8. Sacramento State ... 49
9. Montana ... 35
10. Montana State ... 33
11. Weber State ... 26
12. Southern Utah ... 16
